What Is Microdosing and Does It Work?
Microdosing – taking small doses of usually psychedelic drugs – has been popular with certain types of people looking for greater productivity than standard life hacks such as caffeine and time management can provide. Whether this works is still unknown, but new research suggests that the vaunted benefits may have been linked to the placebo effect from the start.
The drugs used, usually LSD or psilocybin mushrooms, are banned in most places, and communities discussing microdosing methods are usually clandestine, informal, and full of anecdotes rather than data. This 2018 article from The Cut describes this phenomenon in some detail.
The basic idea, however, is that, given the number of miserable, what would otherwise be a hallucinogen, often 10% or less of recreational dose, you will not feel high, but you will feel that – that. The Reddit guide describes some of the general benefits as focus, creativity, “openness”, calmness, alertness, compassion, gratitude, or a state of flow.
With such subtle benefits, it may be impossible for a person to know if their experience comes from a drug or is a manifestation of their own expectations. In other words, it could be a placebo effect.
The term “placebo effect” was originally coined to refer to the fact that people in clinical trials often get better, even if they don’t get tested. Now it is often described as a phenomenon of mind over matter, when you translate your ideas into reality. But it can also be a less exciting combination of factors , such as attributing good changes to a drug and bad ones to ourselves or external obstacles. We also rarely experience things in isolation; If you take a micro dose to help you focus, you probably also put on good music and put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door.
To figure this out, a team of scientists developed a “self-blinding” protocol that micro-dispensers could use at home. Participants were instructed to prepare capsules with and without their usual micro-dose of a conventional psychedelic drug. They placed the capsules in envelopes with QR codes, then shuffled and selected the envelopes for use in the study in such a way as to ensure that they received microdoses within four weeks, four weeks with no content or half or half.
Participants assessed how they were feeling and also took various online tests to measure their cognitive functioning. In the end, both people who received and did not receive microdoses improved “all psychological results.” People who received the real microdoses gained a little weight, which would seem to indicate a small true effect.
But there is one trick: the researchers asked participants to guess if they took real or empty doses. The people who felt and performed best when taking microdoses were the same people who correctly guessed that they were taking microdoses. So it is possible that the consequences were due to the fact that people knew what they were accepting.
The researchers write, “The results indicate that the informal benefits of microdosing can be attributed to the placebo effect.” Further research may reveal specific benefits, if they do exist. Some types or dosages may work better than others. But so far, it certainly seems likely that there is very little benefit from microdoses.