@drugmonkeyblog @dr_leigh @Dirk57 Placebo study could prove a drug *is psychedelic* (etc...but you hardly need placebo study for that) but showing effectiveness vs placebo for some indication very different thing. MDMA for PTSD, psilocybin for end of life anxiety, etc. is much more akin to psychotherapy (as it relies on subjective psychological phemomena—albeit mediated by pharmacology) than it is to traditional psychiatric pharmacotherapy (treating symptoms via relatively direct pharmacological reaction.) And psychotherapy isn't amenable to placebo studies (although its been tried) ... and in a certain sense, psychotherapy, and psychedelic/MDMA/etc therapy for various things, has more in common with the placebo effect than it does with ordinary pharmacotherapy. But—you may disagree here—I don't think this means it is not potentially useful.
