Psychotherapists' openness to engage their patients in Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for mental health treatment.
Priel Meir, Leslie Taylor, Jair C Soares, Thomas D Meyer
Journal of Affective Disorders February 15, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.12.050 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 119 |
| Population | Psychologists |
| Topics | Psilocybin Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Barriers to treatment Mental health professionals Psilocybin-assisted therapy Counselors Psychiatrists Psychologists Treatment barriers obstacles Challenges |
| Citations | 25 |
| Key findings | Attitudes toward medical cannabis and beliefs about psilocybin significantly predicted psychologists' openness to engage patients with psilocybin-assisted therapy, while most would still recommend non-psilocybin psychotherapies first. |
Abstract
Despite psychedelic research initially ceasing in the 1970-80s, the findings documented encouraged researchers to re-examine the safety and efficacy of treating mental health with psychedelics. Of particular focus, psilocybin has shown to have therapeutic potential for a variety of mental health problems and was granted breakthrough therapy status by the FDA. Should psilocybin eventually become legally licensed, the success of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (PAT) may largely rely on clinicians' openness to engage their eligible patients with PAT. We therefore assessed 119 psychologists' openness to recommend PAT, perceived barriers/facilitators to informing patients about PAT, and factors affecting their openness to involve patients with PAT if FDA approved. While 77.4 % of psychologists agreed they would inform eligible patients about PAT, 91.6 % stated they would still recommend psychotherapies that do not involve psilocybin first. 76.5 % endorsed that knowledge on psilocybin would increase their likelihood to inform patients about PAT. More positive attitudes and beliefs about psilocybin, greater self-reported knowledge of psilocybin, personal history of psychedelic usage, and more positive attitudes towards medical cannabis (MC) was associated with greater openness to engage patients with PAT. Our regression analysis revealed that attitudes towards MC and beliefs about psilocybin were the only significant predictors of psychotherapists' openness towards PAT. These findings provide relevant information to institutions planning educational programs for mental health professionals about psilocybin and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on psilocybin and psychedelic-assisted therapy, most cited first.