Psychological medicine
October 6, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Psilocybin use, mental health treatment utilization, and unmet treatment need among US individuals with depression.
Eun AC, Yang KH, Palamar JJ
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Psilocybin use among depressed Americans was not linked to lower use of conventional treatment, but was linked to more perceived unmet need.
What was studied
Cross-sectional analysis of 6,793 people aged 12+ with past-year major depressive episode in the 2024 NSDUH.
Key findings
- 7.3% had used psilocybin in the past year.
- Psilocybin use was not associated with any measure of mental health treatment utilisation.
- Perceived unmet need was higher (52.0% vs 33.9%; aPR 1.44).
Clinical relevance
Patients using psilocybin may be doing so partly because they feel their needs are unmet, so ask about it.
Who should care
Limitations
Cross-sectional self-report that cannot show whether psilocybin use causes or follows unmet need.
Ask depressed patients about psilocybin use and explore unmet needs in their care.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Psilocybin use has increased in the US alongside promising therapeutic potential for depression, raising concerns that individuals may forgo conventional mental health treatment for unsupervised psilocybin use. However, no nationally representative studies have examined whether psilocybin use is associated with differential treatment utilization or perceived unmet need for mental health care among individuals with depression.
METHODS
We analyzed data from 6,793 individuals aged ≥ 12 years with a past-year major depressive episode (MDE) from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a nationally representative survey of the noninstitutionalized US population. Sociodemographic and substance use characteristics were first compared by past-year psilocybin use. We then examined associations between past-year psilocybin use and eight past-year mental health treatment outcomes using Poisson regression, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, other past-year substance use, psychotherapeutic prescription misuse, and alcohol use disorder.
RESULTS
Among individuals with past-year MDE, an estimated 7.3% (95% CI: 6.4-8.3) used psilocybin in the past year. In multivariable models, psilocybin use was not associated with any mental health treatment utilization, including outpatient, inpatient, or telehealth treatment; prescription medication use for mental health; seeing a doctor for depressive feelings; or prescription medication use for depressive feelings. However, psilocybin use was associated with greater perceived unmet treatment need (52.0% vs. 33.9%; aPR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.04-2.01).
CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that psilocybin use among individuals with depression co-occurs with perceived unmet need for conventional mental health care but is not associated with lower utilization of any conventional mental health treatments.
DOI
10.1017/S0033291726106163
PMID
42834832
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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