A Nationwide Study Comparing Mental Health Professionals' Willingness to Try Hallucinogenic Drugs in Basic Research or Clinical Practice

The study used a cross‑sectional questionnaire design surveying mental health professionals from all 13 mental health centres in Israel. The sample comprised 347 participants drawn from medical professions (psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses) and other mental health professions (clinical psychologists and social workers). The extracted text does not clearly report additional sampling or recruitment procedures (for example, response rate or inclusion/exclusion criteria). Participants completed questionnaires that assessed three core domains: familiarity with the medical usage of hallucinogenic drugs (reported as a dichotomous item in the extracted text), personal attitudes toward recreational drug users, and willingness to use five hallucinogens either in basic research or in clinical practice. The five specific hallucinogens are not listed in the extracted sections. Analyses comprised preliminary and primary stages. Preliminary analyses included chi‑squared tests to compare distributions of the dichotomous familiarity variable across professional groups, repeated‑measures ANOVA (RM‑ANOVA) with a between‑subjects factor and Bonferroni pairwise corrections to examine intra‑individual and between‑group differences in willingness, and t‑tests (with Bonferroni correction) to test relationships between familiarity and willingness. These analyses were conducted in SPSS version 25. The primary analytic approach used multiple‑group structural equation modelling (SEM) to model latent variables and estimate paths between familiarity, attitudes and willingness across professional groups; SEM fit indices analogous to confirmatory factor analysis were used (specific indices and thresholds are not reported in the extracted text). The authors note the total sample exceeded typical SEM sample‑size guidance (>200), and that subgroup sizes were larger than suggested minimums (50–70 per group). In addition, multiple regression with interaction terms (implemented using the PROCESS macro in SPSS) was used to test whether the relationship between attitudes and willingness differed by professional group.

Preliminary analyses examined group differences in reported familiarity with clinical use of hallucinogens and mean willingness to use these substances in research or clinical practice. These comparisons used chi‑squared tests for the dichotomous familiarity measure and RM‑ANOVA for willingness, with Bonferroni corrections for pairwise contrasts. T‑tests were used to explore whether reported familiarity related to willingness. The primary findings reported by the authors indicate that psychiatrists reported the highest levels of familiarity with the potential therapeutic role of hallucinogens and the greatest willingness to conduct research with, or to use, such substances clinically, compared with psychiatric nurses, clinical psychologists and social workers. Psychiatrists also reported the strongest belief in the potential utility of hallucinogenic drugs. Across the full sample, personal attitudes toward recreational drug users were negatively associated with willingness to conduct research or to use hallucinogens clinically: participants who held more negative personal views toward people who use illicit substances were less inclined to participate in related research or clinical practice. However, when examining this association by profession, the only statistically significant group‑specific association reported in the extracted text was among psychiatrists: psychiatrists who held negative personal attitudes toward psychoactive substance users were less willing to engage in treatment or research involving hallucinogens. The association was weaker among paramedical staff and non‑existent for psychiatric nurses according to the authors. The extracted text does not provide numeric effect sizes, confidence intervals or p‑values for these associations.

Ben‑Sheetrit and colleagues interpret their findings as supporting the hypotheses that psychiatrists are more familiar with the therapeutic potential of hallucinogens and more willing to engage in related research or clinical use than other mental health professionals. The authors position these results within prior observations that psychiatrists tend to be less reluctant to work with patients who have substance use disorders and may be more optimistic about novel psychiatric treatments. The authors highlight a central and unexpected finding: although negative personal attitudes toward people who use recreational psychoactive substances were associated with reduced willingness to engage with hallucinogen research or practice across the sample, this association was strongest among psychiatrists. This contradicted the authors' second hypothesis, which anticipated that clinicians with more extensive medical training would be less influenced by personal beliefs in their professional decision‑making. The authors note that behavioural intentions are a strong predictor of actual behaviour under the theory of planned behaviour and suggest that personal attitudes could therefore shape professional choices about involvement in hallucinogen research or therapy. Implications discussed by the authors include the need for medical schools, residency programmes and continuing‑education policymakers to address clinicians' personal beliefs about people who use drugs, to reduce bias and support evidence‑based professional decision‑making. The authors argue this is particularly important given limited effectiveness and adherence for some traditional psychiatric medications (noting, for example, lower than 55% adherence to prescribed antidepressants among people younger than 70 years), and the high prevalence of unsupervised psychoactive substance use among patients with mental disorders. The authors acknowledge several limitations. The study's cross‑sectional design precludes causal inference. The measure of familiarity with clinical usage was dichotomous and simplistic, limiting the depth of interpretation. The extracted text also indicates the study did not collect data on the participants' own recreational use of these drugs or on individual clinical experiences with people with substance use disorders—both factors the authors suggest could influence attitudes and willingness. The authors recommend longitudinal research, more nuanced assessment of familiarity and inclusion of other health disciplines in future studies, and they propose that brief educational interventions might mitigate negative attitudes, citing prior evidence that short online modules or targeted training can improve attitudes toward disadvantaged patient groups. Overall, the authors conclude that understanding and addressing personal attitudes among mental health professionals is important to reduce barriers to research and clinical adoption of hallucinogenic therapies and to promote unbiased, evidence‑based practice.