Trends in the psychedelic renaissance: applying artificial intelligence to measure media portrayal of psychedelic drugs in the 21st century
David A Bender, Holly Dunn, Amanda Pekau, Arushi D. Mohite, Akila Anandarajah, Brendan Ross, Jacob T. Steinle, Suraj Shankar, Brandon J. Kiley, Sara Martin, Rishi Gonuguntla, Mia Stonov, Nithya Pippala, Rana Abdalla, Madison K. Stille, Juy Yusuf, Madeline Villalba, Gibson Werner, Anvi Divekar, Melinda Daniels-Tineo, Hannah Wang, Sophia Chertock, Sonali Sharma, Syed Ali Ahmed, Reetwan Bandyopadhyay, Jatin Sridhar, M.k. Iyer, Adebusola Adeyemi, Kayla Smart, Umer Jalil, Zaryab Alam, Baris C Ercal, David J Hellerstein, Charles B. Nemeroff
BJPsych Open February 12, 2026 DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.10974 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Longitudinal media analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 3,308 |
| Population | News articles from Google News searches for the term 'psychedelics' from 2000 to 2025 |
| Duration | 2000 to 2025 |
| Topics | LSD |
| Keywords | Measure data warehouse Subconscious Consciousness Print media Artificial intelligence Aesthetics Cognitive psychology |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | Media sentiment toward psychedelic drugs became more negative and neutral after 2020, despite overall positive coverage across the 21st century. |
Abstract
Background: The relationship between media portrayal of psychedelic drugs, scientific research and drug policy is an area of debate.
Aims: To apply artificial intelligence technology to measure trends in media sentiment towards the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs.
Method: Up to 300 of the most relevant articles from Google News searches for the term ‘psychedelics’ were sampled for each year from 2000 to 2025. A large language model, ChatGPT, evaluated subject matter and sentiment.
Results: In total, 88.3% of screened URLs (3308 of 3747) were included in the analysis. The proportion of articles focusing on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics increased from 13.3% (26 of 198) from 2000 to 2009 to 85.3% (1254 of 1470) from 2020 to 2025. The average sentiment score from 2000 to 2025 for articles from all publications ( N = 2168) was 78.5 ± 9.3 (mean ± s.d.) (possible range: 1–100). 1.3% (29 of 2168) of articles carried negative sentiment (<50) whereas 4.8% (103 of 2168) had extremely positive sentiment (≥90). Average sentiment reached a peak in 2020 (80.8 ± 7.0), and a statistically significant trough in sentiment was observed in 2024 relative to 2020–2023 (2020–2023, 79.2; 2024, 74.3, P < 0.00001, Mann–Whitney U -test). The proportion of negative-neutral articles (≤65) increased annually from a trough of 3.6% (8 of 267) in 2020 to a peak of 20.9% (43 of 253) in 2024. Artificial intelligence sentiment scores were correlated and concordant with average human rater scores ( r = 0.88, concordance correlation coefficient 0.84).
Conclusions: Although most 21st-century media coverage of psychedelic drugs has been positively framed, negative and neutral coverage has increased in frequency since 2020. Researchers, clinicians, regulators and policy-makers should be mindful of the complex relationship between media portrayals of psychedelics and the results of scientific research.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on LSD, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Increased Global Functional Connectivity Correlates with LSD-Induced Ego Dissolution. Human participants | 2016 | Observational cohort | |
| Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin Humans | 2017 | Observational study | |
| Classic psychedelic use is associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality in the United States adult population. USA adult respondents from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2008-2012) | 2015 | Observational cohort | n = 190,000 |
| Psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior: A population study Randomly selected United States adults | 2015 | Observational cohort | n = 135,095 |
| Whole-Brain Multimodal Neuroimaging Model Using Serotonin Receptor Maps Explains Non-linear Functional Effects of LSD. Healthy human participants | 2018 | Observational study with computational modeling |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 13
- Psychedelics and the essential importance of context. Journal of Psychopharmacology February 15, 2018
- Preparing for the Bursting of the Psychedelic Hype Bubble. JAMA Psychiatry October 1, 2022
- Assessing the risk–benefit profile of classical psychedelics: a clinical review of second-wave psychedelic research Psychopharmacology January 13, 2022
- MDMA and MDMA-Assisted Therapy. American Journal of Psychiatry 2025
- American Trip The MIT Press eBooks July 14, 2020
and 8 more in the library