UK medical students’ self-reported knowledge and harm assessment of psychedelics and their application in clinical research: a cross-sectional study
BMJ Open March 1, 2024 Charlie Song-Smith, Edward Jacobs, James Rucker et al. 9 citations
Most UK medical students (83%) are aware of psychedelic research and only 3% are not interested in learning more, yet only 17% feel well-educated on the topic. Students' harm assessments of psychedelics closely match experts', but teaching on psychedelics is rare in their curriculum. Time in medical school does not correlate with more knowledge about psychedelics. On average, students strongly support changing the legal status of psychedelics to enable further clinical research. Greater knowledge, lower perceived harm, more years in medical school, and lower perceived effectiveness of non-pharmacological mental health treatments are associated with stronger support for legal change.