Scoping Study: Current Psychedelic Literature As It Relates to Issues of Equitable Access

Background and Purpose: The United States is currently experiencing a mental health crisis. Pharmacological interventions are often ineffective for those experiencing mental illness and do not provide long-term symptom relief (Campbell & Williams, 2021). There has been a resurgence in research into psychedelics for treating mental health disorders like PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder, and addiction, and initial results have been promising. As a result, legislation and public opinion about these interventions are changing to reflect current research.

As psychedelic therapy is brought into the mainstream, several ethical issues must be considered. Because of our core values and code of ethics, social workers are particularly concerned with questions of social justice. Among the most urgent of these questions pertaining to psychedelic therapy is who will get access to these treatments, who will benefit, and who will be left out. This scoping study aims to identify common themes and gaps in current scholarly psychedelic literature around equitable access to identify where a social work perspective is needed in order to advocate for social justice in this growing body of research.

Methods: The research team systematically searched the chosen databases using our search terms and syntax, saving relevant articles based on their title. The authors then removed the duplicates. Subsequently, the authors each read every abstract and selected the articles appropriate for a full review. The databases utilized were PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The search terms utilized were based on consultation with the institution’s librarian. The inclusion criteria included articles written between 2013 till the present that used the term MDMA, Psilocybin, Ketamine, or LSD specifically and address access via one of the search terms. The research team excluded those studies conducted outside of the U.S., were cannabis-related, clinical trials, and only focused on recreational use rather than a treatment approach.

Findings: Of the 77 articles selected for analysis, common themes are drug rescheduling concerns, public attitudes toward psychedelics, availability of culturally competent practitioners, medicalization issues, and the cost of these interventions. Most of the current scholarly literature is found in medical or psychology journals with authors from the fields of neurobiology, psychology, psychiatry, and medicine.

Conclusions and Implications: There is a noticeable lack of representation among social workers in the field of psychedelic research, despite social workers making up a significant portion of the mental health workforce. As a result of our ethical duty to promote social justice, social workers should play more of an active role in shaping the discussion around how these interventions are made available and to whom. The presentation will conclude with recommendations for how to include social workers in such timely studies.