'Microdosers' of LSD and magic mushrooms are wiser and more creative

We just ran the first ever pre-registered scientific study on the microdosing of psychedelics and found some very promising results.

We compare people who microdose -that is, who takes a psychedelic substance such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) or "magic" mushrooms (psilocybin) in very small quantities -with those who do not, and found that microdosers had healthier scores on key mental health and well-being measures.

Specifically, we found that microdosers scored higher on measures of wisdom, open-mindedness and creativity.

Microdosers also scored lower on the measure of dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality, which is very promising.

Subtle changes, not hallucinations

Psychedelics microdosing can mean 20 micrograms of LSD, 0.1 – 0.3 grams of dried psilocybin-containing mushrooms or very low doses of more exotic substances, like 1P-LSD, ALD-52 or 4-AcO-DMT.

No matter the substance, microdosing implies a dose of subtle changes, not hallucinations. People are not "tripping" we have microdose; they just go about their regular day, whether that means studying at school, going to work or taking care of the kids at home.

There is no published science on microdosing, but despite this, microdosing for self-enhancement and mental health has hit the media.

For example, a 2016 article in Wired San Francisco and Silicon Valley, a magazine for young people in the field of microfinance and competitive advantage.

Ayelet Waldman is the author of the microdosing A Really Good Day: How to Make a Difference in My Mood, My Marriage and My Life. More recently, Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind has more attracted mainstream attention to psychedelics.

Higher wisdom and creativity

No experimental study has evaluated psychedelic microdosing, and neither did we.

Randomized placebo-controlled trials are definitively about the effects of microdosing. In the meantime, we investigated the experiences of people who already microdose.

Our survey investigated the relationship between microdosing psychedelics and mental health. We recruited online participants, especially from Reddit's microdosing community.

We asked our study participants about their microdosing patterns by having them fill in some questionnaires. As a believer in Open Science, we can not find them here. Our findings are soon to be published Pharmacology and you can access the preprint here.

We found that microdosers scored higher on "wisdom," but is a tricky thing to define. In this context, "wisdom" implies multiple perspectives, learning from mistakes, being in tune with emotions and people and feeling a sense of connection. Using this definition, microdosers were more "wise."

They were also more creative and open. If wisdom is tricky, creativity is even more so. In this case, A brick and a knife. Microdosers came up with more useful, unusual and unique uses for these objects. This is a well-validated measure of divergent thinking, but certainly not the be-all and end-all of creativity.

Microdosers also scored lower on measures of dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality. What does that mean?

Well, dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality (aka neuroticism) are bad. Dysfunctional attitudes are beliefs such as, "I do not know how to do it, it makes me look inferior." Neither of these are true, and they are unhealthy to believe they are vulnerable to stress and depression.

Microdosers endorsed less of these unhealthy beliefs. Likewise, high negative emotionality means a higher likelihood of having a mental health disorder, and microdosers had lower negative emotionality.

An exciting future for clinical science

Our results are promising. As promising as they seem, we do not know whether microdosing actually Caused any of these differences.

Maybe people with better mental health are more likely to experiment with microdosing, or perhaps there is some cause for change.

At this point, we simply do not know what caused the differences between the groups -just that these differences existed. We need to run controlled lab studies to actually find out.

Our preliminary work also shows that people report downsides to microdosing. For example, some people found microdosing increased anxiety and mood-instability; increased, bread and gastrointestinal distress were also relatively common.

The most common drawback is that microdosing is illegal. Did we forget to mention that? Yes, psychedelics are totally illegal!

LSD and psilocybin were made illegal in the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances and remain so today. The exact laws can be used in this area, and the use of analog substances can sometimes be a legal gray area, for the most part, microdosing makes you a criminal.

What we need now are controlled trials-randomized placebo-controlled trials of psychedelic microdosing to test safety and efficacy. Microdosing research, full-dose psychedelics, a future for the future of clinical research and the study of human flourishing.

Explore further:
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