Research Keyword: placebo control

Addressing blinding in classic psychedelic studies with innovative active placebos

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This research paper discusses how scientists can better test whether psychedelic drugs actually work by improving the way they conduct clinical trials. A major problem is that psychedelic drugs produce obvious effects that make it easy for patients and researchers to figure out who received the real drug versus a fake one. The authors recommend using different types of drugs as placebos that produce similar effects without being therapeutic themselves, such as certain existing medications. By using these better-designed placebos along with other strategies, future research can more definitively prove whether psychedelics truly help treat depression, chronic pain, and other conditions.

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Psilocybin microdosers demonstrate greater observed improvements in mood and mental health at one month relative to non-microdosing controls

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This study followed nearly 1000 people who microdose psilocybin (small regular doses of psilocybin mushrooms) and compared them to 180 people who don’t microdose over one month. Microdosers showed greater improvements in mood, depression, anxiety, and stress compared to the control group. Interestingly, when older adults combined psilocybin with lion’s mane mushrooms and niacin, they showed better improvements in motor control and speed. The effects were fairly consistent across different ages and genders, suggesting psilocybin microdosing may have real benefits for mental health.

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Psychedelic-assisted therapy – supposedly paradigm-shifting research with poor attempts at hypotheses falsifying and questionable ethics

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This paper critically examines recent clinical trials testing MDMA and psilocybin for treating PTSD and depression. While these trials reported promising results, the author identifies serious scientific and ethical problems: participants could tell whether they received the drug or placebo due to its strong effects, researchers and therapists who strongly believed in the treatment may have unconsciously influenced patient responses, and negative side effects may have been downplayed. The author argues that without fixing these problems, the entire field of psychedelic therapy research could lose credibility.

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