The participants were told the environment was designed to test the effects of psychedelic drugs on creativity in a natural environment. Lead author on the study Jay Olson, leveraged his former career as a magician to construct an elaborate scenario using a number of psychological and environmental tricks to amplify any potential psychedelic placebo effect.Ī room was set up to resemble a party environment, with video projections, ambient music, cushions and snacks. The researchers created a naturalistic party environment, and recruited a cohort of subjects who thought they were participating in a study investigating the effects of psychedelic drugs on creativity. To test exactly how significant the placebo effect may be in the context of psychedelic drugs, a unique experiment was designed. But this effect has never been experimentally quantified. The long-held anecdotal experience of a "contact high" suggests strong psychedelic-like sensations can be generated in people without consuming psychoactive drugs. Still, despite the use of active placebos, the McGill University team suspected psychedelic placebo effects could be obscured by medical settings.
This usually includes drugs such as niacin or ritalin, offering some kind of felt psychoactive sensation in the hope subjects don’t immediately conclude they have been given a non-psychedelic substance.
To overcome this problem many psychedelic researchers incorporate active placebos in trials.
#Placebo tiny balls trial
This is unsurprising from one perspective, given the extreme psychoactive effect of psychedelic drugs, most subjects in a control group during a clinical trial would quickly know if they had received an inactive placebo. Most modern psychedelic science tends to report minimal effects in placebo control groups, yet in naturalistic settings many people frequently discuss the concept of "contact highs." The genesis of this new research grew out of an interesting observation. The experiment, led by a former magician turned psychiatry PhD candidate, created a fictional psychedelic drug and staged a fake party, to explore exactly how much of a psychedelic experience can be generated without administering a psychoactive drug. A new study from scientists at McGill University has gone to extraordinary lengths to investigate how strong the placebo effect may be in psychedelic research.
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