Re:Microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms: a double-blind pla...
by TaylorAlexander on Saturday August 06, 2022 @12:51PM
(#32369647)
Just a small note but my understanding is that “CBT” aka cognitive behavioral therapy is a specific form of therapy, while most research around psychedelic assisted therapy centers around traditional talk therapy rather than a more specific technique.
Re:Microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms: a double-blind pla...
by tonyarkles on Saturday August 06, 2022 @12:12PM
(#32369308)
> There is no placebo effect here that's possible because, well, it is impossible for someone to believe they have taken a full dose of pscychodelic drugs and not feel anything.
From what I recall, a low dose of methylphenidate is used as a control in many studies because it has some of the same side effects without the trip. For psychedelic-naive people who don’t really know what to expect, I could see it being an ok control. Once you’ve experienced a single high-dose trip though… yeah… you’re never going to trick someone with it.
Re:Microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms: a double-blind pla...
by Enginerrrd on Sunday August 07, 2022 @12:40AM
(#32373951)
Just because you know for sure you got the drug DOES NOT mean "no placebo effect is possible" (!)
That just means you can't possibly have a proper control. BIG difference.
These are not microdosing experiments though. The usual way it is handled is that you get a few weeks of CBT then you get half a dose and the following week you get a full dose followed by more weeks of CBT. There is no placebo effect here that's possible because, well, it is impossible for someone to believe they have taken a full dose of pscychodelic drugs and not feel anything. But you still have a control in this case because you have a group that goes through CBT and another group that goes through CBT + drugs.
In fact, from these studies there have been very little "bad trips", mostly I guess because you have the half-dose session and then the full dose session in a very controlled environment and so on. These experiments are obviously done quite responsibly.
So I think you're mixing things up a little bit and I would suggest doing a little more research in the topic. Psychodelic therapy, at least the kind that is being explored seriously is not really done through microdosing.