Shahzadi Adeena ’25

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in microdosing psychedelic drugs as a potential tool for enhancing cognitive abilities and improving overall wellbeing. Vince Polito and Richard J. Stevenson of Macquarie University investigated the effects of microdosing psychedelics on psychological variables such as mood, attention, wellbeing, mindfulness, mystical experiences, personality, absorption, creativity, and sense of agency. The researchers hypothesized that microdosing would positively impact these variables, in line with anecdotal reports and scientific research on higher doses of psychedelics. Polito and Stevenosn focused on serotonergic psychedelics, a subclass of substances that act on 5-HT receptor sites, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, mescaline, and some synthetic research chemicals.For this study, the researchers recruited 98 healthy participants who reported regular microdosing of serotonergic psychedelics. Of the participants, 68.4% were male and the average age was 30.6 years. The participants completed a battery of psychometric assessments before and after a six-week period of microdosing, with an average of 17.2 microdoses taken during that time. A microdose of LSD is 6–25 micrograms, and a microdose of psilocybin is 0.1–0.5 grams of dried mushrooms. It was found that microdosing did not have a significant effect on most of the psychological variables investigated, namely mood, attention, creativity, and personality. However, there were statistically significant improvements in measures of mindfulness (p = 0.004), absorption (p = 0.015), and life satisfaction (p = 0.043). The researchers noted that these effects were small in magnitude, with effect sizes ranging from 0.19 to 0.32, indicating the magnitude of difference between results from before and after the six-week period of microdosing. They also found that the effects of microdosing were highly variable across individuals, with some participants reporting large improvements and others reporting no change or even worsening for some measured variables.
The authors note that further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms and potential benefits of microdosing, as well as the risks and potential negative effects. One noted limitation of the study was that it may have underrepresented those with negative opinions towards microdosing, since participants were recruited through online communities surrounding psychedelics. The researchers also suggest that future studies consider different dosing regimens and potential placebo effects.

Works Cited:
[1] V. Polito and R.J. Stevenson. A systematic study of microdosing psychedelics. PLoS ONE 14, (2019). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211023
[2] Image retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/vectors/brain-think-psychology-trees-4866447/?download