Study: "Tripping on nothing: placebo psychedelics and contextual factors"

[specialspack]

Just published: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-020-05464-5

Rationale
Is it possible to have a psychedelic experience from a placebo alone? Most psychedelic studies find few effects in the placebo control group, yet these effects may have been obscured by the study design, setting, or analysis decisions.
Objective
We examined individual variation in placebo effects in a naturalistic environment resembling a typical psychedelic party.
Methods
Thirty-three students completed a single-arm study ostensibly examining how a psychedelic drug affects creativity. The 4-h study took place in a group setting with music, paintings, coloured lights, and visual projections. Participants consumed a placebo that we described as a drug resembling psilocybin, which is found in psychedelic mushrooms. To boost expectations, confederates subtly acted out the stated effects of the drug and participants were led to believe that there was no placebo control group. The participants later completed the 5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale, which measures changes in conscious experience.
Results
There was considerable individual variation in the placebo effects; many participants reported no changes while others showed effects with magnitudes typically associated with moderate or high doses of psilocybin. In addition, the majority (61%) of participants verbally reported some effect of the drug. Several stated that they saw the paintings on the walls “move” or “reshape” themselves, others felt “heavy… as if gravity [had] a stronger hold”, and one had a “come down” before another “wave” hit her.
Conclusion
Understanding how context and expectations promote psychedelic-like effects, even without the drug, will help researchers to isolate drug effects and clinicians to maximise their therapeutic potential.

 

[EntheoDjinn]

Interesting. Didn't buy the article to read the full version, but curious to know if the recipients of the substance "similar to psilocybin" were 'naive' subjects or self-reportedly experienced with psilocybin mushrooms, or indeed LSD. Maybe someone with free access can chip in.

 

[sekio]

fulltext: https://www.sci-hub.tw/10.1007/s00213-020-05464-5

We ran two samples of participants (n1=16,n2=17), each with students from a different university, to reduce information leaking about the placebo component of the study. In our first sample, we attempted to exclude participants with previous psychedelic drug use, but several of them later revealed to us that they had hidden their previous experience for fear of being ineligible for the study. Thus, in our second sample, we removed this criterion from the screening [...]
The pills were pink, since they have been shown to promote more stimulant effects than placebos of other colours such as blue (Blackwell et al.1972).
[...]
In our second sample, we asked participants at the endof the study whether they had previously used any of theclassical psychedelic drugs. Overall, 6 participants reported that they had, 10 that they had not, and 1 did not answer. This sample is too small to draw strong conclusions, but there did not appear to be a clear relationship between participants’ drug use and their experience. Among those who had used psychedelic drugs, 50%[19%,81%] verbally reported effects; among those who had not, 70%[35%,92%] reported effects. There also seemed to be no major difference in alterations of consciousness, with average 5D-ASC scores of 3.82[1.36,6.82] in theexperienced users and 3.59[0.69,7.37] in the naıve ones

 

[EntheoDjinn]

Thanks Sekio. Much appreciated

 

[Xorkoth]

Interesting that pink placebos tend to produce more placebo stimulant effects than other colors.