What kind of setting is optimal for psychedelic experiences? In research, many contextual factors are underreported, inconsistently reported, or treated like a black box, making it near impossible to answer this question. Thankfully, a recent paper published in Nature Medicine has brought together international experts to advise on how best to solve the issue. 

In this episode of The Integration Session, we’re joined by the paper’s first author Dr. Chloé Pronovost-Morgan who was involved in a global Delphi study to establish the first-ever standardized guidelines for reporting setting in psychedelic trials. Her team talked to 89 experts from 17 countries to come up with a set of 30 important variables, including ones that you probably haven’t even thought about. We discuss why context in psychedelic trials matters, the implications for drug regulation, and how you can use these guidelines to change the way you study and think about psychedelics. 

Chloé Pronovost-Morgan is a first-year psychiatry resident with a strong interest in extra-pharmacological determinants of therapeutic outcomes. She holds an MD from McGill University and an MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from Maastricht University. As part of her master’s, she launched The Delphi Study on Setting at Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research, under the supervision of Dr. Leor Roseman and Dr. Kyle Greenway – an international expert consensus project that led to the development of the ReSPCT guidelines for reporting setting variables in psychedelic clinical trials. Now back in her hometown of Montreal, she hopes to pursue a career as a clinician-scientist in psychiatry.