Most addiction specialists support legalized therapeutic psychedelics

OK, this is a slightly 'over-interpreted' conclusion from this survey of US addiction specialists reported at the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry annual meeting. However the findings are encouraging. Medscape Psychiatry commented: "The majority of addiction specialists, including psychiatrists, believe psychedelics are promising for the treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs) and psychiatric illnesses and, with some caveats, support legalization of the substances for these indications, results of a new survey show. This strong positive attitude is "a surprise" given previous wariness of addiction specialists regarding legalization of marijuana, study investigator Amanda Kim, MD, JD, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, noted. "We had hypothesized that addiction specialists would express more skepticism about psychedelics compared to non-addiction specialists," Kim said. Instead, addiction experts who participated in the survey were very much in favor of psychedelics being legalized for therapeutic use, but only in a controlled setting. "Despite psychedelics increasingly entering the mainstream, we are unaware of any studies specifically assessing the current attitudes of physicians specializing in addictions regarding psychedelics," Kim said. For the study, investigators identified prospective survey participants from the AAAP directory. They also reached out to program directors of addiction medicine and addiction psychiatry fellowships. The analysis included 145 respondents (59% men; mean age, 46.2 years). Psychiatrists made up about two thirds of the sample. The remainder specialized in internal and family medicine. Most respondents had some clinical exposure to psychedelics. Almost 85% reported discussing a psychedelic experience with at least one patient. Overall, participants expressed very positive attitudes regarding the therapeutic use of psychedelics. About 64% strongly agreed or agreed psychedelics show promise in treating SUDs, and 82% agreed they show promise in treating psychiatric disorders."

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