This study used a questionnaire (n=909, 65% of which microdosed) which included the Unusual Uses Tasks as a proxy for divergent creativity. They found that people who microdosed psychedelics (mostly LSD (65%) and psilocybin (28%)) were more creative (p < 0.001, r = 0.15).

Abstract

“Rationale Microdosing psychedelics—the regular consumption of small amounts of psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin—is a growing trend in popular culture. Recent studies on full-dose psychedelic psychotherapy reveal promising benefits for mental well-being, especially for depression and end-of-life anxiety. While full-dose therapies include perception distorting properties, microdosing may provide complementary clinical benefits using lower-risk, non-hallucinogenic doses.

Objectives This pre-registered study aimed to investigate whether microdosing psychedelics is related to differences in personality, mental health, and creativity. Methods In this observational study, respondents recruited from online forums self-reported their microdosing behaviors and completed questionnaires concerning dysfunctional attitudes, wisdom, negative emotionality, open-mindedness, and mood. Respondents also performed the Unusual Uses Task to assess their creativity.

Results Current and former microdosers scored lower on measures of dysfunctional attitudes (p < 0.001, r = − 0.92) and negative emotionality (p = 0.009, r = − 0.85) and higher on wisdom (p < 0.001, r = 0.88), openmindedness (p = 0.027, r = 0.67), and creativity (p < 0.001, r = 0.15) when compared to non-microdosing controls.

Conclusions These findings provide promising initial evidence that warrants controlled experimental research to directly test safety and clinical efficacy. As microdoses are easier to administer than full-doses, this new paradigm has the exciting potential to shape future psychedelic research.”

Authors: Thomas Anderson, Rotem Petranker, Daniel Rosenbaum, Cory R. Weissman, Le-Anh Dinh-Williams, Katrina Hui, Emma Hapke & Norman A. S. Farb

Summary

Microdosing psychedelics is a growing trend in popular culture. It may provide complementary clinical benefits to full-dose psychedelic psychotherapy.

Introduction

Microdosing psychedelics is a growing practice despite a lack of scientific research validating its effects. Members of the public are exposed to the risks implied by criminalized activity and lack of even minimal scientific evidence that normally surrounds clinical use.

We measured self-reported practices and psychological function of participants in existing microdosing communities to develop a description of the common practices used in microdosing.

Full-dose psychedelics

Research links full-dose psychedelic use with salutary effects on mental health and personal growth, including obsessive compulsive disorder, alcohol dependence, tobacco dependence, depression, and end-of-life anxiety.

While research suggests that psychedelics may have therapeutic effects, full-dose experiences are often quite intense and may confer substantial participant risk. Microdosing may circumvent this issue, as anecdotal reports suggest numerous positive outcomes without the risks associated with acute full-dose intoxication.

The present study

In this study, we compared groups of self-described microdosers against controls across a variety of mental health and personality variables, including dysfunctional attitudes, wisdom, negative emotionality and open-mindedness, and creativity.

Mental health vulnerability, wisdom, and personality

Psychedelic substances are purported to have profound effects on one’s understanding of the self and world, leading to enhanced insight and personal growth. Microdosers are therefore predicted to have lower dysfunctional attitudes and higher wisdom than non-microdosers.

Creativity

The Broaden and Build theory proposes a link between positive emotions and relaxed cognitive constraints, which may explain why enhanced creativity is often reported as a benefit of microdosing.

Importance of benefits

Participants rated the importance of qualitative benefits of microdosing as quickly increasing to a plateau, and a total-dose response curve would show optimal reported importance of benefits compared to alternate dose frequencies.

More frequent and more intense positive experiences with a substance motivate future use of that substance, and may also motivate microdosers to try novel pharmacological interventions.

Participants

Participants were snowball-recruited via social media and recruited through posts on the online forum Breddit. Both participants with experience and participants without experience microdosing psychedelics were recruited for this study.

Participants exited the online survey at different stages of completion; different analyses therefore employ different numbers of participants. Of the 909 participants, 29% were currently microdosing, 37% had microdosed in the past but have since stopped, and 30% were interested in microdosing but had no prior experience.

Design and questionnaires

Participants completed online computer-based questionnaires regarding their microdosing habits, substance use and mental health history, dispositional personality variables, and a creativity task. Questions were displayed according to experience with microdosing.

Mental health vulnerability

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale-A-17 is a 17-item self-report scale that measures the presence and intensity of dysfunctional beliefs. It has excellent reliability and good validity.

A Mental Health Index was computed based on the question of whether respondents had ever been diagnosed with any of the following psychological disorders.

Personality

The Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI2) is an updated five-factor personality measure. It measures extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, negative emotionality, and open-mindedness.

Creativity

Participants were asked to generate unusual uses for mundane objects, and their responses were rated using three dimensions: uncommon, clever, and remote. The intraclass correlation coefficient was moderate for each dimension and moderate for each object.

Importance of benefits

Participants rated three self-generated benefits of microdosing and an index of subjective valuation of microdosing was generated using Grounded Theory analysis.

Substance use history

To test H4 concerning substance use history, participants reported their experience with full-dose psychedelics and with other substances. A novel index was developed that calculated the sum of recreational experiences across 13 classes of substance.

Mental health vulnerability, wisdom, and personality

Microdosing predicted lower scores on dysfunctional attitudes, even when controlling for a history of mental illness. These scores were not related to current versus former microdosing, nor to type of substance used.

Wisdom Microdosing predicted higher wisdom scores when controlling for age and level of education, but not between current and former microdosers, nor between type of substance used and total lifetime number of microdoses.

Microdosing predicted lower negative emotionality, even after controlling for gender, which was also a significant predictor. No significant difference existed between current and former microdosers, nor between substance used or lifetime number of microdoses.

Microdosing predicted greater open-mindedness, including when controlling for education, but there were no significant differences between current and former microdosers, nor type of substance used, nor total lifetime number of microdoses.

Creativity

Microdosing predicted higher scores on all three creativity facets: more clever, more uncommon, and more remote responses.

Importance of benefits

No significant differences were found in the importance of benefits of microdosing when regressed on lifetime microdoses or frequency of microdosing, nor when compared between participants who had previous experience with full-dose classic psychedelics and those who had no such experience.

Exploratory analysis

Microdosers reported significantly more positive valence than non-microdosers, but no difference in mood intensity. Current microdosers also reported more positive valence than former microdosers, but no difference in mood intensity.

Discussion

This is the first pre-registered report on microdosing psychedelics. The results suggest a beneficial relationship between experience with microdosing and various mental health and personality variables, and that randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials are warranted to investigate the causal efficacy of microdosing.

Microdosing experience was associated with lower levels of dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality, and a more positive emotional valence than non-microdosers, suggesting a potentially distinct contribution of microdosing on mental health vulnerability.

Microdosers had higher wisdom, which is a complex trait that may be associated with cognitive and emotional processing differences including enhanced capacity for perspective taking, resilience, and feelings of engagement and connection.

Microdosers showed greater open-mindedness compared to controls, though the effect was weaker than in full-dose studies.

Microdosers were more creative when finding unusual uses for household items, which is consistent with Fredrickson’s (2004) Broaden and Build theory.

No evidence was found that microdosing benefits and microdosing practices are related. It is likely that this measure was not sensitive and specific enough, and future research should focus on specific benefits with experimental manipulation of dose and schedule to determine optimal benefit-specific protocols.

Limitations and future directions

The sample is both a strength and a limitation of this study. It represents a true community of microdosers with dozens of countries represented, but participants were predominantly middle class, white, male, and heterosexual.

This study was a cross-sectional design with no longitudinal component or experimental manipulation. It cannot be used to infer causal relationships and is intended as a descriptive foundation.

To test causal hypotheses concerning microdosing effects, pre-registered randomized placebo-control trials are needed. If positive causal findings are found, mechanistic studies could then investigate the observed efficacy in terms of physiological, psychological, and neurobiological changes.

Conclusion

This study provides initial, correlational evidence for mental health and personality benefits associated with microdosing psychedelics. Additionally, the study uses a pre-registered study design that sets a precedent for responsible and replicable psychedelic microdosing research.

The results of the present study suggest that microdosing psychedelics is associated with higher wisdom, creativity and affect-valence, as well as lower dysfunctional attitudes and negative emotionality. These findings warrant further research into the safety and therapeutic efficacy of microdosing.