Connect with us

Research

Does microdosing LSD work? 

A new study has shown microdosing LSD is not beneficial, but researchers say it does not disprove possible benefits.

Published

on

Does microdosing LSD work? 

A recent study testing the impact of microdosing LSD has suggested the practice has no therapeutic or cognitive effects.

Results from a new study have shown that microdosing LSD has no beneficial impact on mood and cognition, in what researchers have described as a “disappointing surprise”.

There has been numerous claims from people self-administering LSD of its impact on mental health conditions such as depression, and improving cognitive function – with workers in Silicon Valley turning to the compound to enhance their job performance, for example. 

Whilst this evidence has been anecdotal, results from one recent citizen science study of people microdosing psychedelics, published in the journal Nature: Scientific Reports, led by University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus (UBCO) researchers, demonstrated that participants reported fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression and greater feelings of wellbeing.

This most recent study, carried out by researchers at the University of Chicago and published in published the journal Addiction Biology, examined the impact of four repeated low doses of LSD, administered under lab conditions, every three to four days.

See also  Microdosing: separating fact from fiction

Although results demonstrated no benefits to the practice, Harriet de Wit, PhD, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the university, has noted that the study doesn’t disprove microdosing’s possible benefits and that more investigation is needed.

De Wit commented: “These drugs are already being used out in the world, and it’s important for us to test them under controlled conditions, ensure their safety and see whether there’s some validity to the benefits people claim.

“That’s something that has been missing from the conversation.”

For the study, one group of participants received 13 micrograms of LSD and a second received 26 micrograms – compared to macrodoses of  100 to 200 micrograms – and the third received a placebo. 

Participants were not told what kind of drug was being tested in the study or that the study was about microdosing, and all attended a drug-free follow-up session three to four days after the final dose. 

See also  The harms of psychedelics: separating anecdotes and misinformation

To measure the results, participants completed cognitive and emotional tasks both during the drug administration sessions and at the drug-free follow-up session, to assess their mood and mental performance. The researchers found that the LSD did not improve mood or affect participants’ performance on cognitive tests, either during the drug sessions or at the follow-up session.

Because LSD acts through serotonin receptors, where traditional antidepressants are known to act, De Wit said the results were a disappointing surprise, and that the team were expecting to document a beneficial effect.

de Wit commented: “We can’t say necessarily that microdosing doesn’t work. All we can say is that, under these controlled circumstances, with this kind of participant, these doses, and these intervals, we didn’t see a robust effect,” noting that outside the lab environment, people who microdose often have strong expectations of beneficial effects. 

“It is possible that these expectations contribute to the apparent benefits, or they may interact with the pharmacological effect of the drug.”

The researchers did find however, that microdosing LSD was safe, and that participants appeared to build a tolerance to LSD over the course of the study.

There researchers noted it was important to undertake this kind of research as practices like microdosing become commercialised.

“There are a lot of companies getting into the drug business, either with psychedelic drugs, or drugs like cannabidiol,” said de Wit. “And really there’s not very much empirical support to back up their claims. So, I think we have a responsibility to investigate and validate the claims.”

Current clinical research on microdosing is very limited. The University of Chicago has previously carried out a study on micorodsing LSD, as has the Beckley Foundation, looking at microdosing for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Another study has also suggested psilocin could cause cardiotoxic effects.

Speaking at a panel on microdosing in 2021, Gregory Ferenstein, CEO at Frederick Research, emphasised the importance of combining microdosing practices with therapy and mindfulness to gain therapeutic effects. 

Commenting on the UCBO citizen science study, Ferenstein remarked that: “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.”

The University of Chicago researchers highlight that completing its study was a challenge due to the heavy regulation of LSD – with the lab needing DEA, FDA and Institutional Review Boards review and approval to carry out. 

This an an issue facing many psychedelic researchers across the globe – as these compounds show potential promise for mental health conditions, regulatory barriers can get in the way of collecting empirical evidence that could lead to the development of new mental health treatments in the face of a global mental health crisis. 

[activecampaign form=52]

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Research

Landmark UK trial to investigate psilocybin for opioid addiction relapse

Published

on

For the first time, a government-funded UK trial will investigate psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for targetting relapses associated with opioid addiction, aiming to bring an innovative new therapy to the NHS if successful. 

Research shows that the UK had the world’s highest rate of opioid consumption in 2019, amounting to a serious public health concern. Further, figures show that around 140,000 people are accessing treatment for opioid dependence in the country. Despite the prevalence of opioid addiction, there are currently limited medicines to help prevent relapses during recovery.

Led by Imperial College London, the new study will use psilocybin combined with psychological support in people who have recently undergone detoxification from opioids such as heroin, methadone or buprenorphine.

While previous research into psilocybin has shown its potential as a treatment for conditions such as depression, anxiety PTSD and addiction, this is the first trial looking at the medicine for addiction relapse.

See also  Compass Pathways launches Phase 3 psilocybin trial in UK

The study is one of four projects focused on reducing drug deaths that have been funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of the Addiction Healthcare Goals programme, led by the Office for Life Science (OLS). 

According to the NHIR, the programme forms part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s plan to deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system for people experiencing drug and alcohol addictions.

Dr David Erritzoe, Clinical Director and Deputy Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, project co-lead, said in a press statement: “We know that up to 90% of people relapse back to opioid use within 12 months of finishing detox, so finding new and effective treatments is essential. 

“If this trial is successful, it offers hope for a new type of treatment that could make a significant difference to this group of people.

“If our initial trial is successful, we will work to enable the development of further clinical trials in larger populations, to bring a new treatment to patients and the NHS.”

Participants will attend Imperial’s NIHR Clinical Research Facility at Hammersmith Hospital campus to receive psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and will receive functional MRI brain scans to enable investigation of the mechanisms of psilocybin in the brain.

Imperial has confirmed that participants will be monitored for up to six months following dosing to track any changes to their opioid use, cravings, mental health outcomes and psychological wellbeing. 

Study co-lead Dr Louise Paterson said in a press statement: “This trial will examine whether we can improve recovery in a severely under-served group of people – namely, those with opioid dependence during their most vulnerable post-detox phase. 

“Clinical studies, including those in our Centre for Psychedelic Research, have shown great promise for this type of treatment in other mental health conditions. We want to see if it works equally well for opioid use disorder.”

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes, Chair of the Addiction Healthcare Goals, and who is also a Professor of Addiction Biology at Imperial, added: “New approaches to treat drug addiction and reduce drug-related deaths, particularly from overdose, are urgently needed. 

“The Addiction Healthcare Goals programme is pleased to fund promising innovations that have brought together partnerships between industry, academia and organisations involved in delivering treatment and care for those experiencing drug addictions.” 

Recruitment is expected to begin in Spring 2025.

Continue Reading

Research

Psilocybin versus escitalopram for depression shows positive results

Published

on

Compass Pathways launches Phase 3 psilocybin trial in UK

A six-month follow-up study of a Phase 2 clinical trial investigating psilocybin versus escitalopram for the treatment of major depressive disorder has shown positive results.

Around 30% of people living with depression in the UK are resistant to current treatments, highlighting an urgent need for new therapies. As the researchers of this study highlight, even for patients who have had their depression successfully treated, there is a high risk of relapse, with one in three patients relapsing within the year.

Equally, SSRI treatments often include side effects such as sexual dysfunction, weight gain, fatigue, and emotional blunting.

The authors note that a key consideration of any treatment of major depressive disorder “is its capacity to produce sustained antidepressant response or remission.”

Mounting evidence is increasingly pointing to psilocybin-assisted therapy as an innovative new treatment for the condition, with clinical trials showing that the therapy is capable of producing rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects.

However, while clinical trials have investigated the treatment itself, they have not compared the treatment to the current gold standard in depression medications or looked at the long-term effects of the treatment.

This Phase 2 trial is the first to compare the long-term antidepressant effects of these two treatments alongside mental health measures including work and social functioning, connectedness, and meaning in life. 

In the trial, patients with major depressive disorder recruited from a UK hospital were administered either two doses of 25mg of psilocybin along with psychological support, or a six-week course of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram in combination with psychological support.

The findings, published in eClinicalMedicine, revealed that both administered treatments saw sustained improvements in depressive symptoms, however, patients who were administered psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy saw greater lasting improvements. 

These improvements included psychosocial functioning, meaning in life, and psychological connectedness.

Dr James Rucker, Consultant Psychiatrist & Senior Clinical Lecturer in Psychopharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, said: “The authors have tended to attribute differences observed in this study to comparative differences between the drugs themselves, however, it is also possible that the results reflect biased reporting between groups. 

“This is more likely here because A) studies involving psilocybin tend to attract those with positive preconceptions about psilocybin and negative preconceptions about conventional antidepressants, and B) study participants were unblinded during the long-term follow-up phase that is reported in the paper, so knew which condition they were allocated to.

“This said, the nature of depression varies hugely between individuals, and this calls for the development of a similarly varied suite of treatment paradigms. Psilocybin therapy is certainly a different paradigm of treatment to escitalopram. 

“The observation of similar levels of effectiveness to antidepressants here is encouraging to see alongside the much larger trials of psilocybin currently underway here in the UK, Europe and the US.”

The authors write: “Key limitations of the study include its suboptimal power to detect small but meaningful differences between treatments, missing data, the potential use of additional interventions during the follow-up period, and reliance on self-reported treatment assessments. 

“These factors may affect the interpretation of the study findings and should be considered when evaluating the results.”

With these considerations in mind, the researchers suggest that the findings warrant further investigation into psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of depression.

Continue Reading

Research

Shortwave Life Sciences psilocybin drug shows positive results in anorexia trial

Published

on

Shortwave Life Sciences psilocybin drug positive results anorexia trial

Shortwave Life Sciences has announced it has achieved a significant breakthrough in its ambitions to transform eating disorder care with positive pre-clinical results from its latest pharmacodynamics study, demonstrating the safety of its psilocybin-based drug combination for the treatment of anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa has one of the highest fatality rates. The condition is a complex mental health condition as well as a metabolic disease, yet no FDA-approved pharmacological treatments are currently available for the condition.

Shortwave Life Sciences in collaboration with Science in Action, an expert pre-clinical GLP-certified lab in Israel, has now tested the safety of buccal administration of Shortwave’s combination drug comprised of psilocybin and a beta-carboline.

The company says this novel treatment provides an expanded mechanism of action and a therapeutic effect superior to psilocybin alone, impacting more than one group of receptors in the brain.

For the study, three groups of rats were given varying doses of the combination drug (0.23ml, 0.5ml, and 1ml), with results showing no adverse effects, weight changes, or behavioural changes following the psychedelic effects.

See also  Short Wave Pharma: innovating eating disorder care with psychedelics

“This is a monumental step forward for Shortwave. Our relentless pursuit of breakthrough mental health treatments comes with the responsibility of ensuring safety at every stage,” commented Shortwave Life Sciences CEO Rivki Stern Youdkevich.

“We are proud of the positive outcomes from this rigorous pre-clinical trial, further validating our patent-pending drug combination and buccal delivery system.

“With this success, we are reaffirmed in our approach to addressing the global mental health crisis.”

In the pre-clinical pharmacodynamics study, all subjects remained healthy and unaffected during the trial, which Shortwave has stated marks a strong foundation for future clinical development.

Furthermore, no adverse events or vital sign changes were reported across all groups, and the results confirmed the safety profile for the psilocybin-based combination drug at elevated doses.

This achievement comes on the heels of the International PCT Examining Committee’s recent acknowledgment of Shortwave’s patent claims for its novel, non-obvious, and industrially applicable mucoadhesive buccal film.

Designed for rapid absorption and bypassing liver and gut degradation, the platform holds transformative potential for patients facing metabolic and psychiatric challenges. This method of administration is designed to be sensitive to patient needs, who may not want to swallow the medicine, and also provides higher bioavailability.

Continue Reading

Trending

Psychedelic Health is a journalist-led news site. Any views expressed by interviewees or commentators do not reflect our own. We do not provide medical advice or promote the personal use of psychedelic compounds. Please seek professional medical advice if you are concerned about any of the issues raised.

Copyright © 2023 Psych Capital Plc