Might Microdosing Psychedelics Be Safe and Beneficial? An Initial Exploration
This diary study (n>100) investigates the safe and beneficial use of psychedelic microdosing (e.g. 10μg LSD) to improve positive moods by evaluating positive and negative emotional states using the PANAS checklist and written reports. The study showed that microdosers perceived improved health habits, increased energy, and improved work effectiveness. Furthermore, smaller samples demonstrated alleviation of symptoms in migraine headaches, traumatic brain injury, pre-menstrual syndromes (PMS), shingles, and other such conditions that have not been previously associated with psychedelic use.
Authors
- Fadiman, J.
- Korb, S.
Published
Abstract
Albert Hofmann suggested that low doses of LSD might be an appropriate alternative to Ritalin. Following this possibility, a systematic exploration of the effects of “microdoses,” comprising hundreds of lengthy descriptive reports, was undertaken. Based on these reports, using a psychedelic in the microdose range (10 micrograms) every three days was determined to be safe across a wide variety of individuals and conditions. Over 18 months, more than a thousand individuals from 59 countries did a daily evaluation of negative and positive emotional state using the PANAS checklist plus written reports for between one week and four months. Participant reports suggested that spaced but repeated microdoses were followed by improvements in negative moods, especially depression, and increases in positive moods. Increased energy, improved work effectiveness, and improved health habits were observed in clinical and non-clinical populations. Smaller samples described alleviation of symptoms in migraine headaches, pre-menstrual syndromes, traumatic brain injury, shingles, and other conditions not previously associated with psychedelic use.
Research Summary of 'Might Microdosing Psychedelics Be Safe and Beneficial? An Initial Exploration'
Introduction
Fadiman and colleagues frame microdosing as the administration of a subperceptual fraction of a typical recreational psychedelic dose, intended to produce no classic psychedelic visuals or intense perceptual changes. They define typical microdose ranges as about 7–13 micrograms for LSD and 0.1–0.4 grams for dried psilocybin mushrooms, and note that early laboratory research looked for perceptual and physiological effects similar to high doses and therefore concluded that doses lower than about 25 µg produced no discernible effects. The Introduction situates the present work within this historical context and highlights a gap: despite widespread informal use and anecdotal reports, systematic and large-scale observational data on microdosing were lacking until recently. This article reports on an open, exploratory programme that began with correspondence and informal reports and evolved into more structured, crowd-sourced data collection. The stated aim is to review what has been learned from initial open exploratory reports, the subsequent more structured self-study protocol, and the planned follow-up studies, focusing on findings for which the authors judged there were sufficient reports to generalise. Participants were still enrolling as the authors wrote, so the results are presented as preliminary and "in progress."
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Study Details
- Study Typeindividual
- Journal
- Compound
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- APA Citation
Fadiman, J., & Korb, S. (2019). Might Microdosing Psychedelics Be Safe and Beneficial? An Initial Exploration. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 51(2), 118-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2019.1593561
References (1)
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