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Underrepresentation in Psychedelic Studies May Indicate Findings Cannot be Generalized
Results from psychedelic medicine studies may not translate across ethnic groups as minorities are highly underrepresented in studies on the subject, according to a methodological search review published in BMC Psychiatry.
“Currently, the dominant, pervasive image of the psychedelic community is White affluence. This is not only due to the prohibitive costs and lack of access to psychedelic substances but also the glorification of 1960s/1970s,” Timothy I Michaels, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Northwell Health, New Hyde Park, New York, and co-authors wrote in the study. “The White washing of psychedelic drug use has unfortunately spread to medical research, as we find extremely low rates of participation by people of color in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy studies and a lack of generalizability of these studies to critical clinical issues for people of color.”
Researchers conducted a methodological search of psychedelic studies from 1993 to 2017 to evaluate ethnoracial differences in inclusion and effective methods of recruiting people of color.
A total of 18 studies met the full criteria and were selected for analysis. Of the 282 participants, 82.3% were non-Hispanic White, 2.5% were African American, 2.1% were of Latino origin, 1.8% were of Asian origin, 4.6% were of indigenous origin, 4.6% were of mixed race, 1.8% identified their race as “other,” and the ethnicity of 8.2% of participants was unknown.
“One factor for low minority representation in psychedelic studies is due to the lack of cultural inclusivity fostered by the research community,” researchers wrote.
Other reasons for low minority representation were minority aversion and resistance, inequity in the criminal justice system, inability to find childcare, and low number of minority researchers, the review found.
“Inclusion of minorities in futures studies and improved recruitment strategies are necessary to better understand the efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in people of color and provide all with equal opportunities for involvement in this potentially promising treatment paradigm,” researchers concluded.
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