4 ms·

I don’t fully understand the issue with blinding. How is it different than trying to double blind talk therapy. Obviously someone knows that they are getting t

by drooby 4y ago

I don’t fully understand the issue with blinding. How is it different than trying to double blind talk therapy. Obviously someone knows that they are getting talk therapy, likewise, people obviously know they are getting psychedelics. Yet we are still able to get experimental results supporting talk therapy and no one complains, right?

lukasb 4y ago
Yeah I don't really get this either. The author suggests asking a lot of detailed questions about which arm participants thought they were in. What happens if participants (as you would expect) make very accurate guesses?
mountainriver 4y ago
Also don't get this, how would you ever possibly isolate that? Give them a drug which kinda feels like MDMA? But what about the individualized effects of that drug? It feels more like they are just looking for a critique. All in all it looks eons better than most SSRIs we prescribe willy nilly every day.
- tasty_freeze 4y ago
  Give non-alcoholic beer to 100 people who don't drink beer. I don't know the number, but I would be surprised if there weren't at least 10% who reported feeling tipsy and acting in stereotypically drunk ways. I know that some psychedelic researchers use a suitable dose of niacin as the control arm. The person will experience some flushing and a faster heart rate. If they are new to psychedelics, they don't what psychedelics are supposed to feel like, and so they assume it is the real thing.
hannob 4y ago
> Yet we are still able to get experimental results supporting talk therapy and no one complains, right? Wrong. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2020/10/07/seeing-is-believing-the-problem-of-blinding-in-psychological-research/ https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2020/10/07/seeing-is-b... I think this is a problem that is generally recognized. Also the science on psychological interventions is generally quite messy.

by drooby 4y ago

lukasb 4y ago

Yeah I don't really get this either. The author suggests asking a lot of detailed questions about which arm participants thought they were in. What happens if participants (as you would expect) make very accurate guesses?

mountainriver 4y ago

Also don't get this, how would you ever possibly isolate that? Give them a drug which kinda feels like MDMA? But what about the individualized effects of that drug? It feels more like they are just looking for a critique. All in all it looks eons better than most SSRIs we prescribe willy nilly every day.

tasty_freeze 4y ago
Give non-alcoholic beer to 100 people who don't drink beer. I don't know the number, but I would be surprised if there weren't at least 10% who reported feeling tipsy and acting in stereotypically drunk ways. I know that some psychedelic researchers use a suitable dose of niacin as the control arm. The person will experience some flushing and a faster heart rate. If they are new to psychedelics, they don't what psychedelics are supposed to feel like, and so they assume it is the real thing.

hannob 4y ago

> Yet we are still able to get experimental results supporting talk therapy and no one complains, right? Wrong. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2020/10/07/seeing-is-believing-the-problem-of-blinding-in-psychological-research/ https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjebmspotlight/2020/10/07/seeing-is-b... I think this is a problem that is generally recognized. Also the science on psychological interventions is generally quite messy.