Media hype regarding psychedelic treatments for depression and PTSD from 2017 to 2024
Audrey G. Evers, Elizabeth C. Stade, Aadesh Salecha, Zoe Tait, Gabriela Khazanov
Scientific Reports April 25, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-50186-x via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMedia coverage of psychedelics as mental health treatments is more positive and less cautious than coverage of FDA-approved antidepressants. An analysis of 6,805 newspaper articles from 2017 to 2024 found that positive emotion and sentiment were more strongly associated with psychedelic coverage, while negative emotion and risk language were more strongly associated with antidepressant coverage. Contrary to expectations, reward language was more linked to antidepressants, and negative sentiment appeared more in psychedelic coverage. This imbalance may shape patient expectations, treatment adherence, and outcomes.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Pre-registered analysis of media coverage using natural language processing and binary logistic regressions Preregistered Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 6,805 |
| Population | Newspaper articles from 2017 to 2024 |
| Duration | 2017 to 2024 |
| Topics | Anxiety |
| Keywords | Depression economics Media coverage Mental health Posttraumatic stress Newspaper |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key finding | Media coverage of psychedelics uses more positive emotion and sentiment language, while coverage of antidepressants uses more negative emotion and risk language. |
Abstract
Enthusiastic media coverage of psychedelics as a treatment for mental health disorders is perceived as hyped compared to coverage of established treatments. To measure potential hype, we conducted pre-registered analyses comparing media coverage (e.g., newspaper articles) of psychedelics to FDA-approved antidepressants for major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. We used LexisNexis to access publications from 2017 to 2024 and natural language processing to analyze 6,805 publications’ sentiment and content. Binary logistic regressions compared the language in paragraphs related to psychedelics, antidepressants, both, or neither. As expected, in binomial regressions, positive emotion and sentiment were more strongly associated with media coverage of psychedelics than antidepressants (β = 0.21; β = 0.67, both p < .001), and negative emotion and risk language were more strongly associated with antidepressants than psychedelics (β = 0.25; β = 0.23, both p < .001). Contrary to expectations, reward language was more strongly related to antidepressants (β = 0.19, p < .001), and negative sentiment was more strongly related to psychedelics (β = 0.17, p < .001). Overall, results suggest that media coverage emphasizes the purported benefits of psychedelics and drawbacks of established medications, which may impact patient expectations, adherence with treatment, and patient outcomes.