UK medical students' self-reported knowledge and harm assessment of psychedelics and their application in clinical research: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: To capture UK medical students' self-reported knowledge and harm assessment of psychedelics and to explore the factors associated with support for changing the legal status of psychedelics to facilitate further clinical research.
Design: Cross-sectional, anonymous online survey of UK medical students using a non-random sampling method.
Setting: UK medical schools recognised by the General Medical Council.
Participants: 132 medical students who had spent an average of 3.8 years (SD=1.4; range: 1-6) in medical school.
Results: Most students (83%) reported that they were aware of psychedelic research and only four participants (3%) said that they were not interested in learning more about this type of research. Although medical students' harm assessment of psychedelics closely aligned with that of experts, only 17% of students felt well-educated on psychedelic research. Teachings on psychedelics were only rarely encountered in their curriculum (psilocybin: 14.1 (SD=19.9), scale: 0 (never) to 100 (very often)). Time spent at medical schools was not associated with more knowledge about psychedelics (r=0.12, p=0.129). On average, this sample of medical students showed strong support for changing the legal status of psychedelics to facilitate further research into their potential clinical applications (psilocybin: 80.2 (SD=24.8), scale: 0 (strongly oppose) to 100 (strongly support)). Regression modelling indicated that greater knowledge of psychedelics (p<0.001), lower estimated harm scores (p<0.001), more time spent in medical school (p=0.024) and lower perceived effectiveness of non-pharmacological mental health treatments (p=0.044) were associated with greater support for legal status change.
Conclusions: Our findings reveal a significant interest among UK medical students to learn more about psychedelic research and a strong support for further psychedelic research. Future studies are needed to examine how medical education could be refined to adequately prepare medical students for a changing healthcare landscape in which psychedelic-assisted therapy could soon be implemented in clinical practice.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: JR has received payments for advisory work from Clerkenwell Health (Past), Beckley PsyTech (Past), Delica Therapeutics (Past), for articles written for Janssen, and financial assistance for attendance at conferences from Compass Pathways (past) and Janssen. JR has received grant funding (received and managed by King’s College London) from Compass Pathfinder, Beckley PsyTech, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, National Institute for Health Research, Wellcome Trust, Biomedical Research Centre at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.
(© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)