Reporting practices in psilocybin-assisted therapy trials for depression: A descriptive review and temporal overview
Journal of Psychedelic Studies July 13, 2026 DOI: 10.1556/2054.2026.00505 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Systematic review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Depression Psilocybin |
| Key findings | Reporting practices in psilocybin-assisted therapy trials are inconsistent, with poor reporting of blinding success, therapist fidelity, and expectancy, and an overrepresentation of participants with previous psychedelic experiences. |
Abstract
Abstract Background Research on psilocybin's antidepressant effects has been investigated rigorously over the last 20 years. Psilocybin has been used in both major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment resistant depression (TRD) cohort with promising results.
Aims: The aim of this review was to summarize the reporting practices used in psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) trials for MDD and TRD. By comparing completed and ongoing PAT, a temporal summary of how reporting practices are projected to change was also investigated.
Findings: The review found several areas of improvement: overrepresentation of participants with previous psychedelic experiences (22.4% of participants); inconsistent reporting of preparatory and integration sessions (reported as number of hours instead of number of sessions); lack of reporting on blinding success for therapists (10%), blinding success for participants (16.7%), therapist fidelity (6.7%), and expectancy (6.7%). Besides this, standardization across trials was found in areas such as depression scales used (increased use of MADRS), intervention for control (increased use of 25 mg) and intervention groups (increased use of 1 and 0 mg).
Conclusion: While reporting practices are becoming more standardized in some key areas, other areas in PAT trials are often omitted or not stated explicitly. Thus, this review highlights the need for future research to investigate blinding success, therapist fidelity, and expectancy more thoroughly, as well as including more participants without previous experience with psychedelics.