Double-blind, randomized, controlled trials (DB-RCT), if designed and conducted well, are widely considered the gold standard in medical research for purposes of establishing causal efficacy. Their logic is compelling: by balancing out all confounding variables through the research design, DB-RCTs are thought to reveal whether a proposed treatment-by virtue of its characteristic...
While the literature on psychedelic medicine emphasizes the importance of set and setting alongside the quality of subjective drug effects for therapeutic efficacy, few scholars have explored the therapeutic frameworks that are used alongside psychedelics in the lab or in the clinic. Based on a narrative analysis of the treatment manual and post-session experience reports from a pilot study of...