Oliver Rumle Hovmand

Oliver Rumle Hovmand, MD, PhD, did his PhD in psychotherapy research on Therapeutic Assessment and Collaborative Assessment. He is currently preparing a trial on psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy on treatment-resistant anorexia nervosa, which is expected to begin recruitment in 2026 in Vordingborg, Denmark. He has written papers on methodological difficulties in the field of medical use of psychedelics and on the measurement of the psychedelic experience. He has also authored Danish textbooks on therapeutic use of psychedelics.

Methodological difficulties in assessing the psychedelic experience

A currently expanding amount of research is being carried out in the field of medical and therapeutic use of psychedelics. A unique aspect of this field, is that the subjective experience appears to predict the outcome of the intervention. However, the pronounced effect of the psychedelic drugs poses a significant challenge to the practice of evidence based medicine practices. This session will be based on two systematic systematic reviews (1: Rumle Hovmand et al., J Psychopharmacol. 2024; 2: Rumle Hovmand et al., J Psychopharmacol. 2024) and will provide suggestions on the use of comparator, selection of outcome and study design, when preparing trials with psychedelic drugs.