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robert heffernan's avatar

It’s not clear to me whether the participants were aware of which form they were having for each session.

I image they were because 5g of fungi is a lot more material than 25mg of synthetic. This would likely influence the experience. Or at least it would be a factor you couldn’t rule out.

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Avi Loren Fox's avatar

Hi Robert, thanks for the comment! Participants were indeed aware of which form they were receiving in each session, as the study was conducted in a real-world therapeutic setting rather than a blinded clinical trial. You could definitely reach out to the researchers directly if you have specific questions around dosage etc.

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robert heffernan's avatar

Hi Avi,

Since they knew which form they were taking this alone could easily explain the subtle difference they seem to experience between them. I'm certainly open that there can be entourage effects with mushrooms that aren't present with synthetic psilocybin. Yet, I don't think this study is good evidence of that.

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The Gray Science's avatar

Thank you for sharing this! I had to miss the conference this year, sadly. Do you know if participants were blinded to the type of psilocybin they received?

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Avi Loren Fox's avatar

Hi there, sorry you missed the conference but happy to share this piece! Happy to answer your question. I believe participants knew whether they were receiving whole mushrooms, an extract, or a synthetic dose. The study was designed to capture qualitative experiences in a real-world, therapeutic setting—not to mimic the blinding procedures of conventional randomized trials.

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