[nemo44x]

No doubt - I’ve had plenty of psychedelics in my youth. However a blinded trial isn’t just about how people describe their trip. The people evaluating the results are unaware who was given placebo as well. This way they can conduct their study without bias.

Also, dosing matters. Can the apparent positive effects occur at low doses where possibly it isn’t very perceptible? This is important and a double blind approach is warranted.

[samatman]

Agreed that it doesn't apply to microdosing, and single-blinding the scientists handling the data is valuable.

I don't think it's as important for the attending scientists, who are also going to have a pretty accurate guess. What's more important is that they have some training in 'trip sitting' and that the experimental environment be appropriately designed, DMT: the Spirit Molecule has a number of stories about how things go poorly when this aspect is neglected.