4 ms·

> In a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial It seems like you can't blind the participants in this case? It should be obvious if you're getting

> In a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial It seems like you can't blind the participants in this case? It should be obvious if you're getting the treatment because psilocybin is a hallucinogen, unless they're giving such a small dose that it reliably doesn't cause any hallucinations? This is important because most (70-80%) of the effect of existing anti-depressants is known to be placebo, and there's already concern that you can't blind in regular anti-depressant trials because the participant might know they receive treatment due to feeling the side effects of the drug (e.g. insomnia). The problem of being unable to blind participants would seem to be magnified in a psilocybin trial.

queuep 6y ago
I'm not an expert in this, but if they gave 25mg psilocybin (not purified) you would probably not hallucinate (of my readings in the reddit posted in another comment here). But I'm not sure if its possibly to purify it, and I'm not sure what effects 25mg of "purified" psilocybin would have.
- degrews 6y ago
  Note that is 25mg of psilocybin, not mushroom. Dried mushrooms contain about 1% psilocybin, so an equivalent dose of dried mushrooms would be around 2.5g, an amount that's definitely high enough to cause hallucinations. Not sure if this is what you mean by purified vs non purified.
david_allison 6y ago
> It seems like you can't blind the participants in this case? It should be obvious if you're getting the treatment because psilocybin is a hallucinogen, unless they're giving such a small dose that it reliably doesn't cause any hallucinations? An active placebo can be used. For example: a high dose of methylphenidate and hallucinogen-naïve adults.[0] [0] Griffiths, et al. (2006) https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/griffithspsilocybin.pdf https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/griffith...

queuep 6y ago

I'm not an expert in this, but if they gave 25mg psilocybin (not purified) you would probably not hallucinate (of my readings in the reddit posted in another comment here). But I'm not sure if its possibly to purify it, and I'm not sure what effects 25mg of "purified" psilocybin would have.

degrews 6y ago
Note that is 25mg of psilocybin, not mushroom. Dried mushrooms contain about 1% psilocybin, so an equivalent dose of dried mushrooms would be around 2.5g, an amount that's definitely high enough to cause hallucinations. Not sure if this is what you mean by purified vs non purified.

david_allison 6y ago

> It seems like you can't blind the participants in this case? It should be obvious if you're getting the treatment because psilocybin is a hallucinogen, unless they're giving such a small dose that it reliably doesn't cause any hallucinations? An active placebo can be used. For example: a high dose of methylphenidate and hallucinogen-naïve adults.[0] [0] Griffiths, et al. (2006) https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/griffithspsilocybin.pdf https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/griffith...