Author: Gary Jackson

Motives and Side-Effects of Microdosing With Psychedelics Among Users PMC

Limiting microdosing research to topics that have been investigated in full-dose research could prematurely overlook unpredicted and potentially distinct microdosing outcomes. Instead, as a means of preparing for a broad range of outcomes, the present work solicited open-ended reports of benefits and challenges. Additionally, as psychedelic substances act on distinct yet overlapping neural receptor sites, it seems plausible that distinct patterns could emerge for different substances. Microdosing with psychedelics, the practice of taking a low dose of a psychedelic every couple of days, seems to be an increasing trend among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professionals.

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Indeed, “set and setting” are major components of full-dose psychedelic use and expectancy is understood to greatly alter the outcome potentials of full-dose psychedelics [31]. Perhaps “set and setting” are also of importance in microdosing, though this remains to be tested. Indeed, each of the constructs described in this taxonomy should be directly tested in placebo-controlled trials. The present study aimed to investigate, by means of an online questionnaire, the history of psychedelic use among microdosers, the dose and schedule they use, the prevalence of microdosing in the work environment, their motivation to microdose, and the potential negative effects. The survey was not specifically advertised as a microdosing survey but rather a psychedelic survey in general. Detailed questions about motives to use were only presented for microdosing since the study was not set up to test differences in motivations for use of regular doses and microdoses.

Psychedelic Substance Use History of Microdosers

Placebo-controlled experimental studies are needed to quantify the alleged effects of microdosing with psychedelics. Findings showed that all respondents in the present survey had at least used 1 regular dose of a psychedelic, which was expected as the survey was advertised for psychedelic users. The most frequently reported psychedelics used, both in regular and microdoses, were LSD and psilocybin. The most reported regular and microdose for LSD was 200 mcg and 10 mcg, and for psilocybin 3.5 g and 0.5 g, respectively.

  • Frequencies are reported for the route of administration per psychedelic drug and mean (±SD) is given for frequency of use per week.
  • However, what he could tell me is that part of how psilocybin mushrooms work is by stimulating the serotonin 2B receptor.
  • Two respondents (both aged 117 years old) were removed from further analyses due to untrustworthy answers, and 2472 respondents were removed from further analyses because they did not have any experience with microdosing, resulting in a total sample of 1116 (20%) respondents.
  • Nevertheless, LSD was one of the most prevalent psychedelic substance to microdose with in the current survey as well as in previous studies (Johnstad, 2018; Polito and Stevenson, 2019).
  • For her, it can be good for honing in on a project, but she also finds thoughts and feelings are intensified, which can translate into impatience with her family.

For example, microdosers often report changes in mood, focus, and creativity thus these constructs should be targeted in future intervention research. Concerns of physiological discomfort and restlessness were also commonly reported thus they should also be monitored. The most widely suggested practice is taking one-tenth of a regular, recreational dose of a psychedelic once every 3 days (Fadiman, 2011; thethirdwave, 2018). There is some early research on using low doses of psychedelics (for review, see Passie, 2019); however, the exact dose along with the practiced dosing schedule people use today is not known. At the moment, the clinical research on microdosing mushrooms and other psychedelics is severely lacking.

Are There Microdosing Disadvantages? Microdosing Mushrooms Side Effects

This summary provides descriptions of the 11 categories of benefits that were distiled from participant reports (Fig. 1). As per grounded theory, the naming conventions for codes reflect the language used by respondents, but more flexibility was introduced as needed at higher orders of abstraction. But new research investigates the effects of the hallucinogen N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on male and female rodents in an attempt to discover its effects on mental and physical health.

  • In addition to the emergent qualitative categories, participants reported on several a priori focal outcomes (Fig. 2).
  • The level of education was separated into 3 main categories; primary (elementary), secondary (high school, academies, gymnasium, etc.), and tertiary education (university, trade school, college).
  • The questionnaire was not targeted to microdosers; moreover, “microdosing” was not mentioned in the advertisement.