A group of experts gathered to discuss microdosing, and separate the fact from the fiction on the safety and efficacy of the practice.
The last few years have seen a rapid emergence of people self-medicating with low doses of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin or LSD – known as microdosing. Reports of increased productivity, and reduced anxiety and depression have been grabbing headlines, but does the evidence support this?
Discussing the benefits and the “shadow side” of microdosing at the Microdose Wonderland event, conference panel members explored the paradoxes of the practice.
The experience of microdosing
Panel host, Paul Austin, founder and CEO of Third Wave highlighted that Albert Hoffman first talked about microdosing in a High Times article in the mid-70s, noting how 25 microgrammes of LSD would be useful as an antidepressant.
Austin described the practice as “something that has been a bridge between our normal waking state of consciousness and the chaos that comes from high doses of psychedelics.”
“For me, microdosing sheds a lot of anxiety, lets me be really present in conversations,” said Steven Holdt founder and CEO of Tune In Psychedelics. “So, instead of my brain running through a million things in my mind, I can actually be open and listen to people and connect with people better.”
Countering this experience, Dr Erica Zelfand, physician at Simba Health, noted: “Microdosing has helped me feel like everyone is mad at me, and like I am really nervous and want to go home and hide. So, I don’t microdose. I have experimented with it a little bit, that’s the psilocybin and then if I microdose LSD, I turned into a cyborg and get a lot of work done, and I don’t want to talk to you.
“That being said, I know that we are all wired a little differently and I do help my patients with microdosing, and that does different things for different people. So, I have seen the benefits that way.”
Natasha de Jong, co-founder and CEO of Earth Resonance, added: “What we have noticed is that the microdose is going help with breaking unhealthy habits – it is not from a force of willpower. I would describe it as being more from an “inner being”, a source that is giving you insights into why you are actually showing the behaviour and giving you the answers to that.
“It gives you the insight to actually make a change and choose differently, and you can do it now. Not tomorrow, not yesterday – you live here in the now. Tthat is where microdosing helps you – to live in the present moment and to not worry about what’s tomorrow or fears for the future or worries. I think it is also such a beautiful tool for PTSD through really integrating that.”
Limited research
Current clinical research is limited: the University of Chicago carried out a study on micorodsing LSD, and the Beckley Foundation looked at microdosing for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), along with an experimental citizen science research study exploring the placebo effect of microdosing, and a further study has suggested psilocin (psilocybin is converted to psilocin in the gut upon ingestion) could cause cardiotoxic effects, to name a few.
Panel member, Judy Blumstock, founder and CEO of Diamond Therapeutics, which is carrying out research on microdosing and published a paper earlier this year , said: “I think that 2021, when we look back at it, is going to be a watershed year – not just our study – but a couple of other studies.
“They will be showing these very low dose effects in animals that I think are a watershed for us this year.”
Gregory Ferenstein, CEO at Frederick Research, added: “I think what the [placebo] study showed was that if you do psychedelics without any help, without any professional oversight or mindfulness practice, you are not going to get much out of it. And I don’t think that’s controversial.”
Calibrating dosing
Austin highlighted the importance of calibrating microdoses due to individual differences, noting “what might work for someone is going to be totally different for another individual”.
Dr Zelfand said: “So far as I know, there is no substance that I have found – a medicine, herbal, natural or synthetic – that works well for everybody.
“What I have found is that the people who tend to do well with microdosing are the folks who are willing to take a more active role in their healing and who aren’t expecting the microdose to just solve all the problems for them so they can take a backseat and get better.
“These are the folks that are wanting to maybe meditate more regularly or put their phones down at 8 pm and have less screen time and make other healthy changes in their lives. The microdosing is like a four-wheel drive for them to do that.”
The shadow side of microdosing
Although anecdotal evidence is pointing to a number of benefits from the practice, some people with certain medical conditions or psychological dispositions should not microdose, highlights Dr Zelfand.
“If we are talking about microdosing being like a kind of amplifier, we need to consider what it is that we’re amplifying. And I have seen microdosing push patients into manic states. And I’m not talking about flow states. I’m talking about true mania, and even psychosis.
“There is still a lot that we don’t know about psychedelics. We’re learning a lot – from a research perspective is has been a bit like drinking out of a fire hydrant. We have all this information coming at us, and with microdosing, we don’t have as much data yet. So, it’s a little trickier to do studies in human subjects because these are controlled substances, and to do a microdosing study you have to send a person home with the substance, so then you’re trusting them not to divert it.”
Zenfeld notes that although for some the practice can arouse insight and creativity, in some people it can irritate the nervous system.
“In terms of folks who tend not to do well with microdosing, based on the limited literature that we have – individuals who have red green colour blindness, not always, but sometimes, they are at risk of getting “tracers”, which is when objects move, it looks like they have a trail of light after them.
“Microdosing can also irritate people who have generalised anxiety disorder. So, not social anxiety, or situational, but low-grade anxiety – sometimes it really irritates them. As well, individuals on the autism spectrum tend to need much higher doses than what a microdose is going to give them. And then, individuals with a strong family history or personal history of mania or psychosis.”
The panel concluded by emphasising the importance of mindfulness practice when undertaking a microdosing protocol.
