Scientific trials of psychedelic drugs face a major challenge: participants can often tell whether they’ve received the actual drug or a placebo, which undermines the integrity of the study. Researchers are exploring ways to address this, such as not informing participants about different treatment arms or using non-psychedelic analogues that may offer similar therapeutic benefits without altering perception. Another approach involves using brain imaging techniques like fMRI, EEG, and PET scans to find objective markers of drug effects. However, these methods also have limitations. For example, brain activity images can be misleading, as increased connectivity seen with psychedelics also occurs with substances like caffeine or cocaine. Experts caution that such data must be interpreted carefully. Via Nautilus