Psychedelic Search Trends in 2023

Take a look at this 2023 search volume chart. Do you think you can guess what’s happening?

I was pretty shocked when I noticed this spike for December (the current month). If I told you the lines on the chart are the following search terms, you will probably be able to guess what it is that’s spiking in interest.

These keywords were generated using Google data that’s based on historical popularity over time. But as you can see, this 2023 is quite curious.

And if you guessed that interest in ketamine is what caused the abrupt move recently, you’d be right.

It seems the media hasn’t been on our industry’s side this year. From deaths to arrests to even planes being susceptible to psychedelic compounds, psychedelics were in mainstream news for virtually nothing but bad reasons. Even Aaron Rodgers was turned into a joke, or worse a villain, after his injury earlier this year. Surely we know that ayahuasca didn’t tear his achilles tendon, but I digress.

Matthew Perry was a big star. He was one of the most beloved cast members of arguably the most popular television show of a generation. Many people knew of his struggles, read his book, and followed his story. When he was recently found dead in his hot tub, no one knew what to think.

But last week, reports were released that pointed to ‘acute effects of ketamine’ specifically. I’m not going to argue that fact here, this is not the article for that. But the information has built up a viral whirlwind of backlash and further investigation into ketamine as a drug.

Thus, during December 10th-16th, the psychedelic industry was swallowed up by everyone wanting to learn more about ketamine.

I figured I would zoom out a bit and see what search volume in 2023 looked like without December. I was surprised by the result.

The red line is ketamine. Green is MDMA. Yellow is psilocybin. Falling far below each of those substances, psychedelics and microdosing have basically identical, and consistent, volumes.

Interesting.

Since 2004, this contest was a toss-up.

It wasn’t until late 2018 that ketamine started pulling away from the rest of the pack. In fact, from 2009 to 2017, MDMA was the most popular of the bunch.

Again, interesting stuff.

The psychedelic data platform, Neuly, captured a great deal of its own search activity this year.

Below is a categorical breakdown of the most popular terms being searched on the platform:

Neuly puts together research reports for industry stakeholders. Below is a list of the most popular research requests in 2023:

How will search volumes in 2024 perform relative to what we’ve uncovered above? I’d like to think that psychedelic medicines will only grow in popularity as more research is conducted, more data and success stories are heard, and more states decriminalize these substances.

We look forward to continuing to monitor these data points and promise to report on them more frequently in 2024.