Skip to content

Addiction specialists' attitudes toward psychedelics: A National Survey.

Amanda Kim, Joji Suzuki

American Journal on Addictions November 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1111/ajad.13461 (opens in new tab)

Read Full Text
Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed
Sample size 145
Population Addiction specialists
Topics Addiction
Citations 15
Key findings Most addiction specialists expressed positive attitudes toward therapeutic psychedelics, with familiarity with the scientific literature being the strongest positive predictor and concern for addictive potential the strongest negative predictor.

Abstract

In recent years, there has been accelerating scientific and public interest in the use of psychedelics to treat mental health disorders. Our study's objective was to assess the attitudes of addiction specialists regarding therapeutic psychedelics. Our study utilized an anonymous online survey to assess the opinions of 145 addiction specialists regarding the therapeutic promise, potential risks, and legalization of psychedelics in the treatment of psychiatric illness and substance use disorders. Psychedelics were defined in the survey as inclusive of nonserotonergic hallucinogens such as ketamine or MDMA in addition to "classic" serotonergic psychedelics. Most respondents expressed positive attitudes to the therapeutic use of psychedelics, but a sizeable minority expressed concern for their addictive potential. Familiarity with psychedelic scientific literature was the strongest positive predictor of belief in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, while concern for addictive potential was the strongest negative predictor. Participants overall expressed more positive attitudes to the therapeutic use of psychedelics than we had hypothesized. This may be attributable to the accelerating pace of psychedelics research in recent years. Given the strong influence of concern for addiction risk on attitudes, future study is warranted to explore the findings regarding these concerns. These findings may also represent an opportunity for improved education of physicians regarding the addictive potential, and relative risks/benefits of psychedelics. Though there have been several prior studies assessing psychiatrist and psychologist attitudes toward psychedelics, we are unaware of any specifically examining the opinions of addiction specialists.

Comparable studies

Other cross-sectional and survey studies on addiction, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Persisting Reductions in Cannabis, Opioid, and Stimulant Misuse After Naturalistic Psychedelic Use: An Online Survey Online survey respondents 2020 Cross-sectional survey
The users of Novel Psychoactive Substances: Online survey about their characteristics, attitudes and motivations International users of novel psychoactive substances recruited via bluelight.org 2016 Cross-sectional online survey n = 619
User perceptions of the benefits and harms of hallucinogenic drug use: A web-based questionnaire study Users of hallucinogenic drugs who completed a web-based questionnaire 2010 Cross-sectional survey n = 600
Psychological and neuropsychological assessment of regular hoasca users. Regular hoasca users from a U.S. branch of União do Vegetal and matched non-user controls 2016 Cross-sectional study n = 57
Client and counselor attitudes toward the use of medications for treatment of opioid dependence. Counselors and clients from outpatient, methadone, and residential drug treatment programs 2007 Cross-sectional survey n = 1,459

Citations in the library

Cited by 16

and 11 more in the library

Cites 6

and 1 more in the library

Related reading

Explore topics

Addiction Ketamine MDMA Serotonin