Trends in the psychedelic renaissance: applying artificial intelligence to measure media portrayal of psychedelic drugs in the 21st century
BJPsych Open February 12, 2026 David A. Bender, Holly Dunn, Amanda Pekau et al. 1 citation
From 2000 to 2025, media coverage of psychedelic drugs increasingly focused on their therapeutic potential, rising from 13.3% of articles in 2000–2009 to 85.3% in 2020–2025. Overall sentiment was positive, with an average score of 78.5 out of 100. However, negative and neutral coverage has grown since 2020: the proportion of articles with sentiment scores of 65 or below rose from 3.6% in 2020 to 20.9% in 2024, and average sentiment dropped significantly in 2024 compared to 2020–2023. Artificial intelligence sentiment ratings closely matched human ratings.