A new study conducted by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center estimates that over 5.5 million people in the US used hallucinogens in 2019.
The study is the first to provide formal statistical analyses of trends in the prevalence of hallucinogen use overall and by age groups during the last two decades.
The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction, represent an increase in hallucinogen use from 1.7 per cent of the population ages 12 years and over in 2002 to 2.2 per cent in 2019. The increase in use is by adults 26 and older, while use decreased in adolescents aged 12 to 17.
LSD use between 2002 and 2019 increased overall and in all age groups with the past 12-month rate increasing from 0.9 per cent in 2002 to 4 per cent in 2019 for those 18 to 25 years of age.
PCP use between 2002 and 2019 decreased, as did the drug ecstasy since 2015.
To assess trends in hallucinogen use in the U.S. general population, the researchers analysed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from 2002 to 2019 for participants 12 years of age and older.
Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and first author, Ofir Livne, MD, MPH, commented: “While new findings suggesting benefits from use of certain hallucinogens among a range of cognitive areas are being published at a rapid rate, there are still gaps in knowledge concerning safe hallucinogen use, and evidence for potential adverse effects even with professionally supervised use that warrant attention.”
Professor of epidemiology in psychiatry at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and senior author, Deborah Hasin, PhD, commented: “Our finding of an upward trend in 12-month LSD use, overall and by age, matches our finding of a downward trend in perception of LSD as risky.
“Factors such as changes in risk perception, in the specific types of drugs available and in expectations of beneficial effects of ‘microdosing’ may all have led to increased use of certain hallucinogens in recent years.”
Livne added: “Given the recent media coverage showing that an increasing number of adults may be reporting positive effects of ‘microdosing’ and expecting therapeutic benefits of hallucinogens without negative effects, our findings merit a comprehensive examination of time trends and motives for hallucinogen frequency and quantity of use.”
“In light of popular media reports of a forthcoming ‘psychedelic revolution’ with commercialisation and marketing that may further reduce public perception of any risk, researchers, clinicians and policymakers should increase their attention to the rising rates of unsupervised hallucinogen use among the general public,” said Hasin.
“Our results highlight such use as a growing public health concern and suggest that the increasing risk of potentially unsupervised hallucinogen use warrants preventive strategies.”
Co-authors are Dvora Shmulewitz, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Claire Walsh, New York State Psychiatric Institute. The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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