Participant preparation and procedural guidance

The manuals converge on the idea that participant preparation is a structured, pre-session process that helps people enter dosing in a ready and informed state. Across the extracts, the manuals recommend rapport building, explaining the upcoming intervention or study procedures, and using preparatory contacts to establish expectations, intentions, and safety. Several sources also link preparation to eligibility and readiness checks, including identifying warning signs, confirming medication or abstinence requirements, and documenting completion of required preparatory content. They also converge on procedural guidance during the dosing session itself, with an emphasis on standardisation and orderly progression. The manuals recommend following protocol-defined steps such as fasting or breakfast procedures, baseline measurements, urine testing when required, and timed dosing with repeated assessments. One source also places preparation in the dosing room when feasible, while another frames the facilitator more broadly as maintaining a professional participant-facing role and supporting orderly study operations. The main differences are in emphasis and study context. The psilocybin depression protocol focuses on therapeutic preparation, lived experience with depression, and psychological safety screening, while the MDMA PTSD protocols emphasise psychoeducation about PTSD and the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy process, trauma history, treatment goals, AE and medication review, and medication taper progress.