3 ms·
Well, true, but it seems hard to design such a study comparing psychedelics and common antidepressants. Because a antidepressant works pretty much on its own.
by hutzlibu 6y ago
Well, true, but it seems hard to design such a study comparing psychedelics and common antidepressants.
Because a antidepressant works pretty much on its own. But when you treat with psychedelics, you have to have a very professional therapist guiding the patient, otherwise you will get all kinds of effects. (So I argue success depends very much on the therapist)
And a patient will notice, whether they just get a mushroom trip, or not. So what they did, they gave the control group 1 mg of antidepressant and told them, they are microdosing psilocybin.
Not really ideal, but how to improve?
- AstralStorm 6y agoIt's a valid comparison design. An alternative is to use a high dose of a known non-antidepressant psychedelic, if one exists, as control. That would have to be something outside ergoloid, tryptamine and psylocybin families, which are likely to have those effects. Tough problem.
- hutzlibu 6y agoAren't psychedelics by definition mind altering? Sounds hard to find a psychedelic that isn't influencing the mind. Some mild hallucinogenics might work, but then the participants may not have mushrooms experience before, otherwise they know when to be fooled.