How psyched are they for psychedelics? En explorativ tvärsnittsstudie kring psykologers och psykologstudenters attityder till psykedelika-assisterad terapi

Psychedelics have been consumed in some parts of the world for thousands of years for healing and ceremonial purposes. Today, studies across the world are investigating their potential effects on a range of different psychiatric disorders. Psychedelics in conjunction with therapy, also called psychedelic-assisted therapy, have been shown to be an effective treatment for conditions such as depression and anxiety. Psychologists may come to play a prominent role in treatment. The purpose of this study was to explore psychologist and psychology students’ attitudes towards psychedelic-assisted therapy. The descriptive statistics showed an overall positive view towards psychedelic-assisted therapy. The attitudes of men and those with prior use of psychedelics were both significantly more positive toward psychedelic-assisted therapy. One explanation for the attitude difference could be an effect of the potential meaningfulness of a psychedelic experience. Despite significantly lower positive mean scores among women and among those who have not used psychedelics, these groups tend to exhibit positive attitudes across several items in the questionnaire. Finally, the study aimed to examine positive-, negative implications and ethical considerations related to the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy. Reflections in the open-text responses included issues such as responsibility, power, negative outcomes, positive effects, and shifts in perspective, which nuanced the quantitative results. Future studies should investigate Swedish psychologists’ and other professional groups’ attitudes towards psychedelic-assisted therapy.