Microdosing psychedelics: Motivations, subjective effects and harm reduction

Lea, Toby; Amada, Nicole; Jungaberle, Henrik; Schecke, Henrike; Kleín, Michael C.

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.11.008

Cited by 66 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…An observational study of 89 recreational users micro-dosing psychedelics found self-reported improvement across multiple psychological domains, including creativity and attention, with a sustained improvement over 6 weeks (Polito and Stevenson, 2019). Studies of recreational micro-dosing, highly vulnerable to bias but arguably self-selecting for longer-term users, report improvement in cognitive focus and attention (14-61% of users; Anderson et al, 2019;Hutten et al, 2019;Lea et al, 2020b). However only one of these studies reported figures for the duration of use, with 60.5% of respondents using for 3 months of more (Lea et al, 2020b).…”

Section: Longer-term Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of recreational micro-dosing, highly vulnerable to bias but arguably self-selecting for longer-term users, report improvement in cognitive focus and attention (14-61% of users; Anderson et al, 2019;Hutten et al, 2019;Lea et al, 2020b). However only one of these studies reported figures for the duration of use, with 60.5% of respondents using for 3 months of more (Lea et al, 2020b).…”

Section: Longer-term Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychedelics as a Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

Jones

O'Kelly

2020

Front. Synaptic Neurosci.

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Currently, there are no disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) or any other dementia subtype. The renaissance in psychedelic research in recent years, in particular studies involving psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), coupled with anecdotal reports of cognitive benefits from micro-dosing, suggests that they may have a therapeutic role in a range of psychiatric and neurological conditions due to their potential to stimulate neurogenesis, provoke neuroplastic changes and reduce neuroinflammation. This inevitably makes them interesting candidates for therapeutics in dementia. This mini-review will look at the basic science and current clinical evidence for the role of psychedelics in treating dementia, especially early AD, with a particular focus on microdosing of the classical psychedelics LSD and psilocybin.

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Section: Longer-term Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Longer-term Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychedelics as a Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

Jones

O'Kelly

2020

Front. Synaptic Neurosci.

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“…9,10 The practice of microdosing refers to the use of very low doses of LSD that are taken at 2-to-5-day intervals to improve cognitive function and mood. [11][12][13] However, little is known about the effects of very low doses of LSD. More data are needed to…”

Section: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics Of Lysergic Acid Diethmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Microdoses in Healthy Participants

Holze

Liechti

Hutten

et al. 2020

Clin Pharma and Therapeutics

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Microdoses" of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are used recreationally to enhance mood and cognition. Increasing interest has also been seen in developing LSD into a medication. Therefore, we performed a pharmacokineticpharmacodynamic study using very low doses of LSD. Single doses of LSD base (5, 10, and 20 µg) and placebo were administered in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study in 23 healthy participants. Test days were separated by at least 5 days. Plasma levels of LSD and subjective effects were assessed up to 6 hours after administration. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined using compartmental modeling. Concentrationsubjective effect relationships were described using pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling. Mean (95% confidence interval) maximal LSD concentrations were 151 pg/mL (127-181), 279 pg/mL (243-320), and 500 pg/ mL (413-607) after 5, 10, and 20 µg LSD administration, respectively. Maximal concentrations were reached after 1.1 hours. The mean elimination half-life was 2.7 hours (1.5-6.2). The 5 µg dose of LSD elicited no significant acute subjective effects. The 10 µg dose of LSD significantly increased ratings of "under the influence" and "good drug effect" compared with placebo. These effects began an average of 1.1 hours after 10 µg LSD administration, peaked at 2.5 hours, and ended at 5.1 hours. The 20 µg dose of LSD significantly increased ratings of "under the influence," "good drug effects," and "bad drug effects." LSD concentrations dose-proportionally increased at doses as low as 5-20 µg and decreased with a half-life of 3 hours. The threshold dose of LSD base for psychotropic effects was 10 µg. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a well-known classic serotonergic psychedelic that is widely used for recreational purposes. 1 LSD is well-absorbed, 2,3 and maximal LSD concentrations are reached 1.5-2 hours after oral administration. 4 LSD is mainly metabolized to inactive O-H-LSD, which is renally eliminated. 3 The plasma half-life of LSD is 3-4 hours. 3,4 Increasing interest has been seen in using LSD for the treatment of various disorders, including depression and anxiety, 5 substance use, 6 and cluster headache, 7 among others. 8 LSD "microdosing" has recently become popular. 9,10 The practice of microdosing refers to the use of very low doses of LSD that are taken at 2-to-5-day intervals to improve cognitive function and mood. 11-13 However, little is known about the effects of very low doses of LSD. More data are needed to

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“…The majority of published research on microdosing is based on online prospective surveys. Relevant to the current study, enhanced in creativity and mood were shown to be among the most commonly reported benefits associated with microdosing (Anderson, et al, 2019a;Anderson, et al, 2019b;Fadiman & Korb, 2019;Lea et al, 2020;Ona and Bouso, 2020). Online qualitative research is an effective way to collect data from many participants in a naturalistic setting, but this method is limited in validity due to participants' false memories and (un)intentional distortions of subjective experiences (Schwarz, 1999).…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 82%

Microdosing psychedelics and its effect on creativity: Lessons learned from three double-blind placebo controlled longitudinal trials

Prochazkova¹,

M²,

Marschall³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Introduction: Microdosing refers to the repetitive administration of tiny doses of psychedelics (LSD, Psilocybin) over an extended period of time. This practice has been linked to alleged cognitive benefits, such as improved mood and creativity, potentiated by targeting serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors and facilitating cognitive flexibility. Nonetheless, in the absence of robust, quantitative and double-blind research on the effect of microdosing, such claims remain anecdotal.Methods: Here, our main aim was to quantitatively explore the effect of microdosing psychedelic truffles on two creativity tasks assumed to rely on separable processes: the Picture Concept Task assessing convergent thinking and the Alternative Uses Task assessing divergent thinking. We present results from 3 double-blind placebo-controlled longitudinal trials (of which one was pre-registered) conducted in a semi-naturalistic setting. Furthermore, we controlled for expectation and learning biases, and the data were mega-analyzed across trials with a pooled sample of 175 participants in order to maximize statistical power.Results: In the final analyses we found that active microdosing increased the ratio of original responses (originality/fluency), indicating higher quality of divergent answers in the active microdosing condition. The unadjusted originality score was significantly more pronounced in the active microdosing condition, but only when relative dosage (dose/weight of participants) was considered. These effects were present after controlling for expectation and demographic biases. No effects of active microdosing were found for convergent thinking or any other divergent-thinking score. The results suggest that the effects of truffle mirodosing are limited to divergent quality and are more subtle than initially anticipated. Our findings furthermore highlighted the importance of controlling for expectation biases, placebo effects, and prior psychedelic experience in microdosing practice and research.

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Microdosing psychedelics: Motivations, subjective effects and harm reduction

Cited by 66 publications

References 55 publications

Psychedelics as a Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

Psychedelics as a Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia

Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Microdoses in Healthy Participants

Microdosing psychedelics and its effect on creativity: Lessons learned from three double-blind placebo controlled longitudinal trials

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