UK medical students’ self-reported knowledge and harm assessment of psychedelics and their application in clinical research: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Song-Smith Charlie , Jacobs Edward , Rucker James , Saint Matthew , Cooke James , Schlosser Marco 
Published: December 2023

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 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

The sample consisted of 132 medical students who had spent an average of 3.8 years (SD=1.4; range: 1 to 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. Time spent at medical schools was not associated with more knowledge about psychedelics. 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. Regression modelling indicated that greater knowledge of psychedelics, lower estimated harm scores, more time spent in medical school, and lower perceived effectiveness of nonpharmacological mental health treatments were associated with a support for legal status change.

Conclusions

This is the first study to explore UK medical students’ self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards psychedelics and their application in clinical research. Our findings reveal a significant interest among 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.

Strengths and limitations of this study

This study presents the first survey of UK medical students’ attitudes towards psychedelics and their application in clinical research.

The wide-ranging assessment included medical students’ self-reported knowledge of psychedelics, a multidimensional harm assessment of psychedelics, level of support for changing the legal status of psychedelics to facilitate further research into their potential clinical applications, and students’ perceptions of medical education on psychedelics and psychedelic research.

The cross-sectional nature of our data prevented us from drawing causal conclusions about potential changes in students’ attitudes and knowledge over time.

The limited range of demographic variables did not allow for an in-depth characterisation of this sample and important predictors of attitudes might have been missed. Non-random sampling and selection bias could have impacted the generalisability of our findings as students already interested in drugs might have been more likely to participate.