Scientists Pump the Brakes on Psychedelic Antidepressant Hype
Gizmodo • • general
Key Points:
- A new meta-analysis of 24 clinical trials suggests that the positive effects of psychedelics on depression may largely be due to the placebo effect, as patients are always aware when they are taking psychedelics.
- The study compared open-label trials (where patients know if they are receiving the drug or placebo) of traditional antidepressants to psychedelic trials and found both treatments to be similarly effective, with traditional antidepressants slightly outperforming psychedelics by a small, non-significant margin.
- Psychedelics have shown greater improvement compared to inactive placebos than traditional antidepressants have, but this advantage may be influenced by patients' awareness of the treatment, complicating fair comparisons.
- Some experts caution that differences in study designs and patient populations make
