How to set up a psychedelic study: Unique considerations for research involving human participants.
Marcus J Glennon, Catherine I V Bird, Prateek Yadav, Patrick Kleine, Shayam Suseelan, Christina Boman-Markaki, Vasileia Kotoula, Matt Butler, Robert Leech, Leor Roseman, David Erritzøe, Deepak P Srivastava, Celia Morgan, Christopher Timmermann, Greg Cooper, Jeremy I Skipper, James Rucker, Sunjeev K Kamboj, Mitul A Mehta, Ravi K Das, Anjali Bhat
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews July 1, 2026 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106657 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractSetting up a psychedelic research study involves a long, arduous, and Kafkaesque process with many unstandardised challenges. These complexities challenge existing assumptions about psychiatric prescribing, the placebo effect, and definitions of selfhood. This review brings together major UK psychedelic research teams to formalise these unique considerations, addressing sociocultural, political, legal, pharmacological, safety, study design, and experiential facets. It identifies continuing areas of debate and provides a practical, experience-based guide with recommendations for policymakers and future researchers intending to set up a psychedelic study or clinical trial.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Ethics Placebo Psychedelics Psychopharmacology Schedule i |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key finding | The paper provides a formalised, practical guide for setting up psychedelic research studies, addressing unstandardised challenges across sociocultural, political, legal, pharmacological, safety, study design, and experiential domains. |
Abstract
Setting up a psychedelic study can be a long, arduous, and Kafkaesque process. Researchers are faced with a host of challenges in this rapidly evolving field, necessitating a range of considerations that remain largely unstandardised. Many of the complexities inherent to psychedelic research also challenge existing assumptions around, for example, approaches to psychiatric prescribing, the conceptual framing of the placebo effect, and definitions of selfhood. This review paper aims to formalise these unique considerations by addressing the sociocultural, political, legal, pharmacological, safety, study design and experiential facets inherent to a psychedelic study. We bring together several of the major psychedelic research teams across the United Kingdom, identify continuing areas of debate, and provide a practical, comprehensive, experience-based guide, with recommendations for policymakers and future researchers intending to set up a psychedelic research study or clinical trial.