National Survey Investigating Hallucinogenic Trends (NSIHT)

About This Grant

Project summary The global objective of the National Surveillance Investigating Hallucinogen Trends (NSIHT) program is to determine detailed, real-world psychedelic use patterns and health outcomes stratified by local policy. Psychedelic drug use, commonly called hallucinogens, is rapidly increasing in the United States. In 2023, nearly 3% of the US populations used a psychedelic in the past year and 9.2% of people aged 18-24 years old used in Oregon and Colorado where psilocybin has been legalized and decriminalized, respectively. The FDA is evaluating new psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, and 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) for approval and more than half of US states have active legislation to increase availability of psilocybin for medicinal or recreational use scheduled in 2025. Yet the risk of increased psychedelic use in the general population is unknown. NSIHT will measure the details of psychedelic use and associated health outcomes in an enriched user population across the US (Aim 1). We will determine the effect policy has on health outcomes of safety and effectiveness associated with psychedelics using a novel epidemiologic transport weighting method (Aim 2). Finally, we will use NSIHT to predict use patterns and associated health outcomes in US states considering policy change in coming years (Aim 3). The program collects data twice yearly and is therefore flexible to rapidly assess emerging use patterns, assess county level policy differences while controlling for underlying comorbid disease, symptom burden, and demographics. NSIHT is the first nationally representative tool to assess psychedelic use and outcomes while controlling differences between populations. NSIHT will provide rigorously collected data to users, researchers, public health officials, and policy makers to maximize safety and effectiveness of these drugs.