OPEN Foundation

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Advancing psychedelic research and therapies to benefit science, healthcare, and society since 2007.

OPEN Foundation is the organiser of the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research. Founded in 2007, the OPEN Foundation is the leading nonprofit organisation in the Netherlands and Europe dedicated to advancing the knowledge and understanding of psychedelics through research. We aim to optimise the potential of psychedelics in a therapeutic context and to help integrate psychedelics into society in a way that’s both sustainable and responsible. We fulfil our mission by bringing together and educating professionals, policymakers, and the public through conferences, trainings, membership programmes, and by facilitating and promoting rigorous, interdisciplinary research.

23/09/2026

The molecule is only part of the story.

In psychedelic-assisted therapy, outcomes may be shaped not only by pharmacology - the substance itself -, but also by the context in which the experience takes place, among other important aspects.

Researchers often describe this through the concept of set and setting.

Set (Mindset): Refers to the internal state of the individual prior to and during the experience. This encompasses personal expectations, intention, psychological preparation, emotional state, personality traits, and baseline beliefs.

“Setting” refers to the external factors influencing the experience. This includes the immediate physical environment, the interpersonal/therapeutic context, and the broader socio-cultural environment.

More recently, Hartogsohn (2016), writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, argued that these extra-pharmacological factors are central to understanding responses to psychedelic substances.

Research continues to examine preparation, therapeutic support and integration as potentially important components of psychedelic-assisted therapy, while also making clear that their individual contribution to clinical outcomes is still being investigated.

This matters because a psychedelic session does not happen in isolation. Expectations may influence experience. The therapeutic relationship may affect how safety and trust

22/09/2026

Foundations of Psychedelic Therapy programme is the starting point for mental health practitioners understand more about psychedelic care.

Across 13 months and 10 online modules, the programme explores neurobiology and psychopharmacology, clinical evidence and its limitations, risks and contraindications, psychotherapeutic models, preparation, session support, integration, ethics and research literacy.

Because the most scientifically useful question is not simply, Do psychedelics work?

It is: for whom, under what conditions, with what support, and with what evidence?

If psychedelic-assisted therapy is becoming part of your professional horizon, build the foundation before deciding how far you want to go.

The next online cohort begins 4 November 2026.

Head to the link in bio.

20/09/2026

Psilocybin holds real therapeutic promise. Understanding that promise requires looking closely at the evidence, its limitations, and the questions researchers are still working to answer.

On Psilocybin Education & Awareness Day, we highlight the importance of scientific rigour and responsible education, including honest discussion of the challenges involved in studying psychedelic therapies.

As discussed in a recent New Scientist article by M. Busby, and explored further in our latest blog post, one of these challenges is functional unblinding: participants can often tell whether they received a psychedelic or a placebo. This can influence expectations and complicate how treatment effects are interpreted.

Differences in how studies measure outcomes also make comparisons challenging. These methodological questions have a direct impact on their findings, offering an opportunity for further research to explore.

Read “Psychedelics vs Antidepressants: What a New Meta-Analysis Really Shows” on the OPEN Foundation blog.

18/09/2026

How do psychedelic-assisted therapy and antidepressants compare in depression research?

A 2026 meta-analysis by Zachary J. Williams, Hannah Barnett and Balázs Szigeti, published in JAMA Psychiatry, compared improvements in depression symptoms across 24 trials: eight of psychedelic-assisted therapy and 16 of open-label antidepressant treatment.

In open-label trials, participants know which treatment they receive. Psychedelic trials often become effectively unblinded because participants recognise the drug’s effects. The researchers therefore used open-label antidepressant studies to make treatment awareness and expectations more comparable.

They compared symptom changes from baseline to each trial’s primary endpoint using the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The estimated difference was 0.3 points in favour of antidepressants, with a confidence interval spanning zero. This small, statistically non-significant difference provided no evidence of superiority for either approach in this comparison - *a difference that is statistically meaningless (with a confidence interval spanning zero).*

*Key Takeaways:*

- *Neither approach was proven superior:* The 0.3-point difference is far too small to be clinically or statistically meaningful.
- *Both treatments performed about equally:* Controlling for treatment awareness shows that both approaches produce comparable results.
- *Equal overall efficacy:* Both therapies lead to meaningful symptom reduction, but neither is demonstrably better than the other in terms of overall symptom reduction.

This was an indirect comparison across trials, with differences in participants and treatment protocols. It does not establish that the treatments are equivalent or interchangeable.

Clinical psychologist and OPEN volunteer Dilara Oexemann discusses the research in our blog article, “Psychedelics vs Antidepressants: What a New Meta-Analysis Really Shows”. Read the full article in our blog.

Original research: Williams, Barnett & Szigeti (2026), JAMA Psychiatry.

https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.4809

15/09/2026

Sometimes the best conversations happen away from screens, walls and meeting rooms. 🌿

On Friday, 25 September, we’re taking the OPEN Community Meetup outside, for a walk through Amsterdamse Bos.

It’s a chance to slow down, connect and meet others interested in psychedelic science, therapy and the wider field.

No presentations. No pressure. Just fresh air, meaningful conversations and a community of curious people walking together.

Whether you already work in the psychedelic field or simply want to meet people who share your curiosity, everyone is welcome. Just RSVP to secure your spot.

Details:

📅 Friday, 25 September 2026

🕕 6:00 to 7:30 PM CEST

📍 Amsterdamse Bos, Amsterdam

Register now and join the OPEN Community in person meetup.

11/09/2026

Classes for the September 2026 cohort of ADEPT, Advanced Education in Psychedelic Therapy, have already started, and there is still time to join. 🎓

ADEPT is a two-year hybrid programme for mental health professionals, combining evidence-based learning with mentorship, supervised practice and experiential training. Participants complete 10 online modules, 3 experiential practicums and 5 in-person training days in the Netherlands alongside leading experts in the field.

If you're a licensed mental health professional interested in Psychedelic Therapy, check our website to explore whether ADEPT is the right fit for you and subscribe to our newsletter to be informed on the upcoming cohorts. Link in the bio. ✍️

10/09/2026

Today is World Su***de Prevention Day.

Effective su***de prevention requires more just than a safety net for when the need is acute. It demands care that is compassionate, fast-acting, and holistic.

When someone is in severe distress, healing comes from addressing the whole person, not just managing symptoms in isolation. It isn’t a purely pharmacological intervention. It requires a safe container built on human connection, structured therapeutic support, and ongoing integration. That’s why safety, ethics, and integral care are at the core of our work at the OPEN Foundation.

Through our ADEPT training program, we emphasize that psychedelic-assisted care is never just about a substance - it is about equipping healthcare professionals with the rigorous, ethical skills needed to guide people safely through their most vulnerable moments.

If you are a mental health professional looking to expand your horizon and work with rigour and compassion, subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about our training programs.

***dePreventionDay

08/09/2026

Are you familiar with our OPENCommunity?

We invite you to check what happened last month and what's to come.

In August, Lisa-Maria Aldinger joined us for Journal Club to share her study concept on esketamine-assisted group schema therapy for treatment-resistant depression. The session sparked a lively exchange about music, legal contexts and therapeutic approaches to ketamine-assisted therapy.

We also welcomed Christine Caldwell, Founder and Executive Director of End of Life Psychedelic Care, for a Peer Perspectives session on psychedelic work at the end of life. Her reflective questions about our relationships with death led to such an engaging conversation that the session continued for an extra half hour.

Coming up in September: 💫

⁠This month marks a new chapter for our OPEN Community membership as we relaunch our Plus memberships.
What's inside? Peer Perspectives, Journal Club, community meetups, master classes, clinical applications, research updates and networking.
Learn all about our community in our website.

Our upcoming events are:

🧠 Placebo Effects & Blinding in Psychedelic Trials, by Balázs Szigeti, PhD
Tuesday, September 8
7 PM CEST
Online

🚶Community Nature Walk In-person meetup
Friday, September 25
6 PM CEST
Amsterdam, Netherlands

💬 Psychedelics & Parenthood - by Trace Lee, Mikaela de la Myco, PhD, Glauber Loures de Assis, PhD
Monday, September 28
7 PM CEST
Online

Join them by becoming a community member or donation based.

Check our website for RSVP:
open-foundation.org/events/

07/09/2026

Are you a professional seeking a clear-eyed, critical understanding of the evidence base behind psychedelic-assisted therapies? If so, join Balázs Szigeti, PhD, for a talk examining how functional unblinding shapes the design and interpretation of psychedelic trials, with particular attention to the problem of missing placebo response.

Placebo Effects & Blinding in Psychedelic Trials
🗣️ Balázs Szigeti, PhD

⏰ Tuesday 8 September 2026, 7PM CEST (6PM BST, 1PM ET, 10AM PT)

📍 Online event (link in bio)

🎟️ Free for OPEN Community members, or donation based

27/08/2026

Why does it matter whether a psychedelic trial is truly blinded? Because the answer shapes whether we can trust what the science is actually telling us.

In a typical clinical trial, comparing a treatment to a placebo only works if participants don’t know which one they received. However, psychedelics produce such vivid, unmistakable effects that both patients and researchers can often tell who got the real thing, undermining the blind before the trial even begins. When that happens, the placebo group’s response becomes hard to interpret, and expectation itself starts to blur with the treatment’s true effect.

This isn’t a minor technicality, with functional unblinding being a major factor in the FDA’s rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, and it continues to shape how regulators, researchers, and clinicians evaluate the evidence behind psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Join Balázs Szigeti, PhD, a clinical data scientist at UCSF’s Translational Psychedelic Research Program, on Tuesday 8 September as we unpack this challenge. Balázs is known for his work on functional unblinding and the “know-cebo” effect, the diminished placebo response seen in psychedelic trials, and even invented “self-blinding,” a citizen-science method that lets people implement their own placebo control without clinical supervision.

📅 Tuesday 8 September, 7 PM CEST / 6 PM BST / 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT 💻 Online via Zoom

Learn more and register via the link in bio. 🌱

Adres

Amsterdam Centrum

Website

http://www.open-foundation.org/, http://icpr-conference.com/

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