LSD Microdosing Study: Psychedelics and Behavioral Effects

There are many benefits claimed for the practice of microdosing psychedelics (typically taking 10-20% of a full standard 'recreational' dose every few days). However there have been very few research studies on this topic so far. Here's a half hour talk by Kim Kuypers of Maastricht University on a couple of interesting studies they have recently completed . The talk's description comments: "Microdosing (MD) with psychedelics is popular in the media, where it is portrayed as a cognition enhancer and a productivity tool. While reports are in general positive, scientific evidence on the potential negative effects is lacking aside from the motives to use. It is not clear whether these alleged beneficial effects are due to users’ expectancy or truly induced by the substance and quantifiable by means of lab measures. To address these gaps we set up two studies, an online survey to gain insight in the motivation and potential experienced negative effects of MD and a placebo-controlled experimental study to assess the acute effects of LSD MD. This presentation will provide a brief overview of current LSD and psilocybin microdosing research, review the details of the study, explain the study results on MD focused on the users performance, empathy, and creativity, and discuss the larger question: is microdosing an effective nootropic?"