Abstract
Psychedelic microdosing describes the ingestion of near-threshold perceptible doses of classic psychedelic substances. Anecdotal reports and observational studies suggest that microdosing may promote positive mood and well-being, but recent placebo-controlled studies failed to find compelling evidence for this. The present study collected web-based mental health and related data using a prospective (before, during and after) design. Individuals planning a weekly microdosing regimen completed surveys at strategic timepoints, spanning a core four-week test period. Eighty-one participants completed the primary study endpoint. Results revealed increased self-reported psychological well-being, emotional stability and reductions in state anxiety and depressive symptoms at the four-week primary endpoint, plus increases in psychological resilience, social connectedness, agreeableness, nature relatedness and aspects of psychological flexibility. However, positive expectancy scores at baseline predicted subsequent improvements in well-being, suggestive of a significant placebo response. This study highlights a role for positive expectancy in predicting positive outcomes following psychedelic microdosing and cautions against zealous inferences on its putative therapeutic value.
Highlights
Psychedelic microdosing describes the ingestion of near-threshold perceptible doses of classic psychedelic substances
We aimed to assess a potential sample bias by asking participants to specify their relationship to psychedelic substances according to a set of s tatements[20] that were rated on a 5-point Likert scale: “I am an active advocate of psychedelic drug use”, “I am an active advocate of the therapeutic use of psychedelics”, “I have an advanced knowledge about psychedelics”, and “I am a highly experienced psychedelic drug user”
Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations of relevant baseline measures can be found in Supplementary Table S1
Summary
Psychedelic microdosing describes the ingestion of near-threshold perceptible doses of classic psychedelic substances. Microdosing is a quite different phenomenon to the single ‘full-dose’ administrations currently in clinical development[16,17], where the typical protocol is to administer just one or two large doses (e.g., 25 mg) of psilocybin in guided clinical settings with careful context manipulation (e.g., participant screening and psychological support before, during and after the sessions), with the intention of engendering transformative psychological experiences and associated lasting improvements in mental health o utcomes[18,19] Important findings in this regard include evidence that just a few moderate to large doses of a psychedelic can produce enduring positive changes in outlook and behaviour in healthy volunteers[18,20,21,22,23], as well as reduced psychiatric symptom severity in clinical populations[17,24,25,26,27,28,29]. Positive media coverage of the topic have likely contributed to this cultural bias[4,6,9,10,12] and this may impinge on outcomes from microdosing and the results of studies such as the present one
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