This placebo-controlled, randomized, naturalistic study (n=80) of repeated microdoses of LSD (10μg, 14x, 6w) finds improved ratings, on dosing days, on creativity, connectedness, energy, and other wellness ratings. Though these transient changes were found, no enduring changes to mood and cognition were observed.
Abstract of Acute mood-elevating properties of microdosed LSD in healthy volunteers
“Background Microdosing psychedelic drugs is a widespread social phenomenon with diverse claimed benefits to mood and cognition. Randomised controlled trials have failed to support these claims, but the laboratory-based dosing in trials to date may have limited ecological validity.
Methods Healthy male volunteers were randomised into Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (n = 40) and placebo (n = 40) groups and received 14 doses of either 10 μg LSD or an inactive placebo every three days for six weeks. First doses were given in a supervised laboratory setting, with other doses self-administered in a naturalistic setting. Results of safety data, blinding, daily questionnaires, expectancy, and pre-/post-intervention psychometrics and cognitive tasks are presented here.
Results The most notable reported adverse event was treatment-related anxiety, prompting the withdrawal of four participants from the LSD group. Daily questionnaires showed credible evidence (>99% posterior probability) of improved ratings of creativity, connectedness, energy, happiness, irritability, and wellness on dose days relative to non-dose days, which persisted when controlling for pre-intervention expectancy. No questionnaire or cognitive task showed a credible change between baseline and six-week assessment time-points.
Conclusions Microdosing LSD in healthy adult males appears relatively safe, notwithstanding a risk of anxiety. While microdosing elicited transient increases in scales associated with mood effects, in healthy adults this was not sufficient to promote enduring changes to overall mood or cognition. Future microdosing trials in clinical populations will require active placebos to control placebo effects and dose titration to adjust for inter-individual variability in drug response.“
Authors: Robin J. Murphy, Rachael Sumner, William Evans, Rhys Ponton, Sanya Ram, Kate Godfrey, Anna Forsyth, Alana Cavadino, Venkat Krishmamuthy, Todd Smith, Nicholas R. Hoeh, David B. Menkes & Suresh Muthukumaraswamy
Summary of Acute mood-elevating properties of microdosed LSD in healthy volunteers
Microdosing psychedelic drugs is now a prevalent community phenomenon. Retrospective surveys of community microdosers have reported a wide range of benefits to mood and cognition. Still, RCTs conducted in laboratory environments have only detected minor acute effects and no durational effects of repeated doses. The current RCT uses repeated self-administered microdoses of LSD over a six-week period to address the lack of ecological validity and employing treatment regimens that are too brief in RCTs conducted in artificial laboratory environments.
Healthy male volunteers were randomly assigned to receive 14 doses of 10 g LSD base (in distilled water) or inactive placebo (water only) every 3 days for 6 weeks. Self-recorded videos verified dose compliance submitted every dosing day. Pre-/postintervention questionnaires, cognitive tasks, and expectancy questionnaires were administered at Baseline, Treatment, and Final visits. Results of creativity, brain plasticity and connectivity, blood-based biomarkers, and qualitative interviews will be presented elsewhere.
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.03.013
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Cite this paper (APA)
Murphy, R. J., Sumner, R., Evans, W., Ponton, R., Ram, S., Godfrey, K., ... & Muthukumaraswamy, S. (2023). Acute mood-elevating properties of microdosed LSD in healthy volunteers: a home-administered randomised controlled trial. Biol Psychiatry, 94(6), 511-521.
Study details
Compounds studied
LSD
Topics studied
Microdosing
Study characteristics
Original
Placebo-Controlled
Double-Blind
Randomized
Participants
80
Humans
Institutes
Institutes associated with this publication
MindBio TherapeuticsMindBio Therapeutics is conducting clinical research exploring the effects of microdosing psychedelic medicines to treat a range of medical conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, panic disorder, chronic pain and opioid addiction.
Compound Details
The psychedelics given at which dose and how many times
LSD 10 μg | 14xLinked Research Papers
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Linked Clinical Trial
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