The associate who shows up already convinced a treatment is dangerous or overhyped is harder to train into evidence-based use than the one who shows up neutral. A cross-sectional survey of 87 veterinary students found that positive attitudes toward psychedelics were associated with stronger and more consistent favorable treatment expectations than factual knowledge alone, while perceived risk was associated with an inverse pattern.
What the study found
Positive attitudes were associated with the strongest and most consistent favorable expectation domains, including perceived treatment benefit, impact, and overall expectations. Perceived risk was associated with an inverse, though more moderate, pattern. Sociodemographic and educational variables were more closely associated with treatment expectations through these psychological constructs than through direct associations with the expectation domains themselves.
How the study was built
Cross-sectional observational survey conducted among undergraduate veterinary students (N = 87) at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria during the 2025/2026 academic year. All students enrolled in the program were invited to participate; no exclusion criteria were applied. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire assessing knowledge and beliefs about psychedelics, alongside the Treatment Expectation Questionnaire (TEX-Q). Exploratory factor analysis identified two latent dimensions, positive attitudes and perceived risk, which were included as independent variables in subsequent analyses. Associations were examined using nonparametric tests, correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression models.
This is a cross-sectional design, which means it captures a snapshot at one point in time. It can show associations but cannot establish causation or directionality, whether attitudes are associated with expectations, expectations are associated with attitudes, or both are associated with a third variable the study did not measure. The sample was drawn from a single institution in Spain, which limits generalizability to other veterinary programs or countries.
The number, and its error bars
The abstract does not report effect sizes, confidence intervals, or p-values for the associations between positive attitudes, perceived risk, and treatment expectation domains. It states that positive attitudes were associated with "the strongest and most consistent associations" and that perceived risk was associated with "an inverse, though more moderate, pattern," but no numeric estimates or measures of uncertainty are provided.
What the authors say it cannot tell you
The authors state that future longitudinal studies are warranted to clarify the relationships among these variables and to evaluate how educational experiences influence their development. The cross-sectional design limits causal inference. The abstract does not list other specific limitations.
Who paid for it
The abstract does not state funding sources or conflicts of interest.
What this means for your practice
VeterinaryPracticeNow's read, not the study's. Everything in this section is our editorial interpretation for practice owners. The study does not claim any of it.
This is a survey of what vet students think about a therapy that does not yet exist in mainstream veterinary practice, so the immediate clinical takeaway is zero. But the pattern, that attitudes are associated with expectations more than knowledge is, is worth filing if you hire new grads or run student externships. The associate who shows up already convinced a treatment is dangerous or overhyped is harder to train into evidence-based use than the one who shows up neutral, and this study suggests that conviction forms before they see the first patient.
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The broader question is whether psychedelic-assisted therapies will ever land in veterinary practice at scale. The abstract references preliminary applications in canine anxiety and experimental protocols in osteoarthritic pain, but those are early-stage and highly restricted. For now, this is a research-stage conversation, not a formulary decision. What the survey does show is that the cognitive frame students bring to an emerging therapy, their baseline attitudes and perceived risk, may be associated with how they evaluate it when it comes time to adopt it. That's true for psychedelics, and it's probably true for the next novel class after that.