CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new look at data from a nationally representative survey finds that more than 8 million people, roughly 2.8% of the U.S. population, reported having used psilocybin in the year prior to the survey. The data came from the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and included responses from 58,000 people in the U.S. age 12 and older.
The new findings are detailed in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine Focus.
Psilocybin is a potentially hallucinogenic compound found in more than 200 mushroom species. Interest in its use as a potential treatment for depression, anxiety, substance use disorders and other maladies has grown in recent years, as federal authorities have loosened restrictions on its use in clinical trials, and some states are making moves to decriminalize it. However, it remains classified as a Schedule I controlled substance at the federal level.
The new analysis found that psilocybin users were more likely to be white, male, younger and significantly more affluent than nonusers. Psilocybin users also were more likely to report using other mind-altering substances, including alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, LSD, marijuana, a hallucinogenic drug known as DMT and two stimulants, AMT and “ foxy .”
“The purpose of this study was to describe not only the prevalence of psilocybin use but to also look at the associated risk factors,” said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign health and kinesiology professor Andrew Yockey, who led the research with health and kinesiology professor Rachel Hoopsick .
“We’re seeing some loosening restrictions around psilocybin and there’s a lot of public conversation about its potential,” Hoopsick said. “But most of the use is happening outside of clinical trials. Our study is filling a gap by showing who is using this substance in the general population and what other behaviors are associated with that use.”
Policymakers and public health practitioners are beginning to focus on “poly-substance use” because access to various drugs is increasing and individuals often experiment by trying different substances and even combining them, Yockey said. A small dose of psilocybin may come with limited risks, but “if a person takes it along with something like ketamine, we still don’t know a lot about the risk profiles behind these combinations, and this could lead to potential poisoning or unintentional death.”
Psilocybin by itself comes with potential risks and side effects, “including hallucinations, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, muscle weakness, vomiting and loss of coordination,” Yockey said. “There also is a risk of dependence, but it’s very low.”
If people are using psilocybin without medical guidance or supervision, “we don’t know anything about the dose or product potency,” Hoopsick said. “If you’re just getting it from an unknown source, you don’t necessarily know how much you’re using, how strong it is, and so it might not have the effect that you think it’s going to have on your body, so that’s a potential risk.”
A limitation of the NSDUH survey is that it did not ask the kinds of follow-up questions the researchers would like to explore, Hoopsick said.
“We don’t know about the dose that people are taking, the potency, the reason why they’re taking it, where they’re taking it, if it’s under supervision or whether they intended for it to be therapeutic, spiritual, social or purely recreational,” she said.
The survey also did not include incarcerated people, people in institutions or “unsheltered homeless individuals,” the team reports.
For these reasons, and because the survey requires self-reporting of drug use, it likely undercounts the number of people using psilocybin and other drugs, the researchers said.
A previous report from a much smaller nationally representative survey of adults in the U.S., the 2025 RAND Psychedelics Survey , found a higher prevalence of use. According to that report, approximately 11 million U.S. adults reported using psilocybin in the past year, many of them by “microdosing,” using amounts much smaller than those intended for psychoactive effects. That report estimated that only about 10% of the psilocybin used involved microdosing, however.
The fact that people with higher incomes are more likely to use psilocybin and the concern that most are using it outside clinical settings likely reflect the cost of engaging in a medically supervised trial, Yockey said.
“The average cost of psychedelic-assisted therapy is up to $6,500, so people with higher incomes might be able to afford that. Those with low incomes have limited treatment access options — and a lot of these therapies are not covered by insurance — so where do they go?” Yockey said.
While the use of other substances like ecstasy, ketamine and LSD strongly predicted that a person would also use psilocybin, those who reported using heroin were much less likely to also use psilocybin, the team found. This may have to do with the intended outcome of using heroin, which people often rely on to numb intense emotional or physical pain, Hoopsick said.
“Overall, I think our study is showing that psilocybin use is common enough that clinicians, public health professionals and policymakers all need to be paying attention if they’re not already,” she said. “Our goal is not to sensationalize psilocybin use but just to understand who is using it, how it overlaps with other substance use and to better understand how we might we be able to provide evidence-based harm reduction and guidance as public interest continues to grow, because it’s likely going to continue to grow.”
Editor’s note :
To reach Rachel Hoopsick, email hoopsick@illinois.edu .
To reach Andrew Yockey, email ayockey@illinois.edu .
The paper “Prevalence and Correlates of Past-Year Psilocybin Use in the U.S., 2024, USA” is available online.
DOI: 10.1016/j.focus.2026.100518
AJPM Focus
Data/statistical analysis
People
Prevalence and Correlates of Past-Year Psilocybin Use in the U.S., 2024, USA
22-May-2026
No conflicts reported