Microdosing Psychedelics Has Benefits, Users Say. Science Isn’t Convinced Jane C. Hu - The Washington Post
go to original June 26, 2023

Some people microdose for better mental health, or personal and spiritual growth. Scientific evidence for microdosing, though, is scarce and has been mixed. (Maria Jesus Contreras/The Washington Post)

Microdosing is not new — reports of microdosing date to at least the 1500s, and modern Western microdosing practices began in the 1960s. After the United States prohibited psychedelics in the 1960s and ’70s, their use moved underground. For decades, the use of psychedelics was stigmatized.

People microdose a variety of psychedelics — most commonly LSD and psilocybin — and experiment with dosages. A typical microdosing regimen involves taking a drug multiple times a week, sometimes as frequently as every other day.

Frequent microdosers say the practice helps them manage symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or chronic pain. Others microdose to optimize their quality of life; they say it boosts their creativity or mood.

The popularity of psychedelics has skyrocketed as recent clinical trials have suggested that psychedelic-assisted therapy may help treat mental health issues. But microdosing is different from dosing participants with moderate to large amounts of psychedelics and pairing it with therapy, which is the subject of those headline-grabbing studies.

A microdose is typically no more than a tenth of the size of a dose used in clinical trials — and unlike participants in clinical trials, microdosers are largely self-medicating without the support of therapists or facilitators.

In 2020, 2.6 percent of people age 12 and older in the United States (or 7.1 million people) said they used hallucinogens in the past year, according to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Most surveys tend not to distinguish between the use of small and larger amounts of psychedelics, making it difficult to know how many people microdose or have tried microdosing psychedelics.

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