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For years, experiences with LSD and other psychedelic drugs have suggested that “ microdoses ” of these substances may offer a range of psychological benefits to people, with the potential to help treat depression and other mental health problems.
The idea that these long-controversial drugs could actually improve people’s mental well-being, cognition and creativity has been hailed as an exciting new paradigm in medical research – but according to a new study, the supposed benefits of these substances might not be what they appear to be.
In what is described as the largest placebo-controlled trial of psychedelics to date, researchers found that the positive psychological effects associated with psychedelic microdosing may simply be a manifestation of the placebo effect.
The placebo effect is a strange phenomenon where people seem to experience medical benefit even when they have only taken a placebo, such as a sugar pill that does not contain any active medical substances.
Although the mechanisms that enhance the placebo effect remain debated, the researchers suggest that the phenomenon is related to people’s expectations: if people think they might be affected by something, that belief in itself can trigger various effects. physiological factors likely to alter their experience.
In the new LSD study, the same phenomenon could well have happened.
Researchers from Imperial College London have recruited 191 volunteers: people already experienced in psychedelic microdosers.
In a “ self-blind ” online experiment – in which participants did not know what was inside the capsules they were taking – half of the group ingested microdoses of LSD, and the the other half actually acted placebos.
Over the course of four weeks, participants took their mystery capsule diet (LSD or placebo), while completing surveys about how they felt and taking cognitive tests online.
The results ultimately showed that those who took LSD microdoses felt better after taking their pills, with significant improvements in psychological measures of well-being, mindfulness, life satisfaction and health. paranoia.
However, the same benefits were seen in people taking the placebo pills, with no significant difference between the two groups.
“Our results are mixed: on the one hand, we observed the benefits of microdosing in a wide range of psychological measures; on the other hand, equal benefits were seen among participants taking placebos, ”says study lead author Balázs Sziget, research associate. with the Center for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.
“These results suggest that the benefits are not due to the drug, but rather the placebo-like hold effects.”
“Many participants who said they experienced positive effects from taking the placebo were shocked to learn after the study that they had not taken the real medicine.”
This isn’t the first time researchers have explored the bizarre link between psychedelics and placebos, but researchers say theirs is the first to conduct a placebo-controlled investigation into the cumulative effects of repeated microdosing.
Based on the results, the experience seems to confirm the commonly reported anecdotal reports that the act of microdosing LSD confers positive psychological benefits – only this suggests that these improvements “are not due to the pharmacological action of the microdosing,” but are rather explained by the placebo effect “.
That said, minor differences in some psychological measures were evident between the two groups, although the researchers say the effect sizes were small, with questionable clinical and practical value.
“In summary,” the authors conclude, “these results strongly suggest that the actual contents of the capsules did not determine the differences between the conditions, but beliefs about their content. “(Emphasis in original.)
The researchers point out that their self-blind experiment – in which participants mix their own capsules at home to participate in the trial – has some limitations, acknowledging that the results are less rigorous than data from a conventional clinical trial. .
But there’s no denying the potential impact of these findings, which show that we can’t rule out the possibility that the placebo effect may influence the results of contemporary research on psychedelics – and in quite a breathtaking way.
“An empty pill with strong beliefs / intentions does almost everything,” one astonished participant, who only took placebos in the trial, told researchers.
“You put spirituality in an empty pill here… wow!”
The results are reported in eLife.
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