As the clinical applications of psilocybin-induced therapy are becoming more widely-supported, opinions are shifting. Although psychedelic involvement in medicine is gaining popularity, many people remain hesitant and openness to providing psilocybin-assisted therapy is limited due to many factors including fear of the unknown, unanswered questions, potential risks, long-standing stigma towards psychedelic use, and the paucity of education regarding their medical use. While psilocybin-induced therapy continues to undergo trials, this study aims to assess current attitudes amongst clinicians, providing an interesting perspective on a widely controversial topic. By surveying clinicians throughout the nation, the study intends to determine the majority attitude and awareness regarding psilocybin use in the medical world amongst clinicians and the factors that influence these attitudes.
Working Project Question:
What is the majority attitude and awareness towards psilocybin use in the medical world amongst physicians? How do factors such as department specialty, location, and age factor into these attitudes?
Prior to this survey, despite increasing interest in psilocybin-assisted therapy, knowledge regarding clinicians' attitude and knowledge towards psilocybin’s potential in a medical context was limited. Now that this study has been conducted we can understand a little more about clinician attitudes surrounding this topic as we have documented the knowledge and attitude of 56 clinician respondents to help move us forward in our understanding.
While the survey yielded a variation of unique responses, the biggest takeaway was overwhelmingly the clinicians surveyed expressed that they saw some value and potential in psilocybin-administered treatment. When asked their opinion surrounding the potential for psilocybin to be used safely in a medical context, 96.4% of respondents, 54 people, said they believe psilocybin does have the potential while 3.6%, 2 people, said that it does not have the potential. In the explanations regarding their answer to this question, many clinicians expressed they believe psilocybin has potential if used safely appropriately and monitored by trained professionals. They believe “safety issues can be mitigated with proper training, screening, set and setting”. In addition clinicians expressed it can be extremely healing/effective for people with fewer side effects than many psychotropics currently on the market. “It is a tool that patients can utilize to better access or process trauma, addiction, or deep seated pain in a safer, alternative way.” “Psilocybin has low toxicity, entheogenesis, low risk of dependence, and high help in breaking over learned patterns of pathology.”
When asked If psilocybin-administered treatment was legally available, would you prescribe or recommend it for your patients, 35.7% of respondents, 20 clinicians, marked 10 on the likelihood scale. 7.1% of respondents, 4 clinicians, marked 9 on the likelihood scale, 17.9% of respondents, 10 clinicians marked 8 on the likelihood scale, 10.7% of respondents, 6 clinicians, marked 7 on the likelihood scale. Respondents of this survey showed a higher likelihood overall regarding prescribing/recommending psilocybin induced therapy to patients. The majority of respondents rated their knowledge regarding the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy in the context of patient care a 8,7 or 6, indicating a high understanding surrounding psilocybin-assisted therapy amongst clinician respondents. 17.9% of respondents, 10 clinicians, rated their knowledge an 8. 19.6% of respondents, 11 clinicians, rated their knowledge a 7. 16.1% of respondents, 9 clinicians, rated their knowledge a 6.
Clinician respondents provided valuable insight regarding their concerns surrounding psilocybin administered treatments and developments in research that could affect their overall stance on the topic. 30.4%, 17 clinicians, claimed they had no concerns surrounding psilocybin-administered treatment while 67.9%, 38 clinicians, said yes they do have concerns. The most common concerns amongst clinician respondents included: Insufficiently trained treaters, abuse potential, harm of the western medicine model, tendency for clients to self-administer, accessibility and affordability, and working with psychologically fragile clients. The most common developments in research that had the potential to alter their attitudes included: research surrounding impact on all age groups, legalization, research showing efficacy and low risk, greater community acceptance, using imaging, and understanding the biological bases for what is happening in the brain.
Clinician respondents expressed very clear hesitation in administering psilocybin treatment to a specific patient population as 98.2% of respondents, 55 clinicians, said there were patients or situations that would make them more or less likely to recommend treatment with psilocybin-assisted therapy. The most common patient populations clinicians tended to be less likely to recommend psilocybin-assisted therapy treatment to included: resistant depressed patients, clients with a family or personal history of psychotic and other related disorders, patients with substance use or abuse, patients with ongoing exposure to medications, and patients with a lack of support network.
These clinician responses are incredibly valuable as it can help scientists understand the developments in research that need to be done to make psilocybin-administered treatment widely-acceptable in the medicine field. Bringing together the existing literature surrounding psilocybin’s therapeutic effects and the overwhelming interest as a potential therapy by all these surveyed clinicians across different fields it is clear that there should be more investment in this topic.
Image References:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/96058