Editorial policy and methodology

How content is researched

Every page starts from the question a reader actually has, such as how strong a species is, whether a medication is safe to combine, or how to rule out a deadly look-alike, and then from the primary literature on that question. Secondary references are cited only where no primary source exists, and are labelled as such. Where a figure appears on a page, it is traced back to the study, assay, drug label or statute it came from, and that source is listed at the bottom of the page.

When sources disagree, the page shows the range rather than picking the most convenient number. Potency figures are the clearest case: the same genetics can vary up to fourfold between flushes, so species pages give measured ranges, and the dose calculator scales from a representative figure, not the peak.

Primary sources used

• Species and potency: published alkaloid assays, chiefly Stamets, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (1996), cross-checked against Gartz and against Beug & Bigwood’s measurements of psilocybin and psilocin across species and across flushes.
• Medication interactions: peer-reviewed studies, case reports and survey data indexed in PubMed, official prescribing information (FDA labels and DailyMed), regulator safety notices, and clinical reference texts such as the NCBI Bookshelf.
• Look-alikes and poisoning: published toxicology and case literature on amatoxin and orellanine poisoning, and mycological descriptions of the distinguishing characters.
• Legal status: the statute, regulator or government page for each jurisdiction, such as legislation.gov.uk, the US DEA, the Australian TGA, Health Canada, and the Oregon and Colorado state programmes.
• Cultivation: university extension material on mushroom growing and contamination, with long-running grower references used for technique where no formal literature exists.

How evidence is graded

A case report is not a trial, and a plausible mechanism with no human data is not a finding. Interaction pages say which kind of evidence they rest on, and “no usable data” is an accepted answer. Each interaction carries a severity grade:

• Dangerous: documented serious harm, or a well-founded risk of it. Lithium and irreversible MAOIs are graded here.
• Caution: a real mechanism exists and the size of the effect varies.
• Intensifies: the experience is stronger than planned for.
• Reduces effects: the experience is blunted or blocked. A blunted dose is a wasted dose, not an emergency, but redosing on top of it is the risk.
• Low risk: no mechanism and no signal.
• No data: not studied, labelled that way, and treated as caution.

Grading everything as dangerous teaches readers to ignore the grading, so risk is not inflated to look cautious.

Safety rules

• No page advises stopping a prescribed medication. Interaction entries send that decision to a prescriber, because abrupt discontinuation of lithium, an antidepressant or a benzodiazepine carries its own risks.
• Look-alike pages never imply that a wild mushroom is safe to eat. Identification is presented as a way to rule things out, with the spore print as the first check.
• Calm mode is written in short, plain sentences, with specific and true reassurance only.

Review process

Safety rules and data completeness are enforced by an automated test suite that blocks any deploy that fails it; figures are traced to the source listed on the page.

Update policy

Pages are updated when the evidence or the law changes, not on a calendar for its own sake. Drug law can change with no transitional period, so legal status entries are re-verified when the law changes; each row shows the date it was last checked. Guides show the date they were last updated. A date is only moved when the content was actually re-checked.

Independence

Fungodex has no affiliate links, paid placements, paywall, or email capture. It is a harm-reduction reference and not medical advice.

Corrections

Where a figure, source or safety statement is wrong, it is corrected on the page. To report an error, use the contact page. Read more on the about page, or see the look-alikes guide and legal status table for examples of the sourcing described here.