Translated from our German original by AI. The German text was researched, written, and edited by the Psychedelia Foundation team and remains the authoritative version.
Clinical research on classic psychedelics has grown considerably over the past ten years. A new review identified 165 ongoing clinical trials with classic psychedelics. Most are in an early trial phase, are being conducted in the United States, and examine depression as the most common indication.
The analysis also shows that psychedelics are administered only once in most trials. Two designs are particularly common: open-label single-group trials, and parallel-group, quadruple-blinded trials with an active placebo.
At the same time, the review draws attention to methodological challenges. Across the ongoing trials, 33 different placebos are in use, and only six trials explicitly record how well the blinding actually holds. In the authors’ view, this makes the trials harder to compare and shows that placebo controls and the maintenance of blinding in particular still call for methodological improvement.
Overall, the authors see considerable potential in the many ongoing trials to answer important open questions in psychedelic research and to improve the design of future clinical trials.
