• Psychedelic Medicine

MICRODOSING | +80 articles

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The effects of microdosing LSD

by Martijn Schirp

The potential to improve cognitive functioning, body awareness and our spiritual evolution with a microdose of psychedelics are limitless. There are five categories by which we can describe the overall effects of microdosing LSD. I gathered these from the various first person reports I’ve quoted so far and my own extensive experimentation.

Physical
  • More overall energy, like a psychedelic coffee. A buzzing effect.​
  • Being able to walk very long distances without tiring.​
  • Need of extra sleep at the end of the day, feeling more drained than usual.​
  • Sometimes an uncomfortable stomach feeling, heavy body load.​
  • More relaxed and better focus.​
Emotional
  • More appreciation for little things.​
  • A resonance and openness by which world seems to invade more deeply and I have a more playful way of relating to this invasion.​
  • Anti-depressive qualities, improved mood.​
  • More patience.​
  • Personal issues are at times disturbing.​
  • Enhanced emotional clarity.​
Perceptual
  • Music is better, more persuasive in guiding inner states.​
  • Sometimes objects seem to glow, having an aura surround them.​
  • Time perception is warped.​
  • Enhanced sense of touch, smell and hearing. Sometimes synesthesia.
Creative
  • More flow.​
  • A fuller awareness of the entanglement of ideas, a richer and seemingly higher overview and increased association.​
  • Comprehension of ideas is greatly enhanced.​
Spiritual
  • Increased awareness of universal connectedness, in a marvelous, enlightening and almost divine way.​
To be able to experiment with these states of conscious in a safe and constructive manner, be sure to follow these guidelines.​
  • Start out with a dose on the lower end of the psycholytic spectrum and record how you react to it. A microdosing regime that is too high makes you incapable of following your normal routine with the risk of staying in the limbo/coming up phase the whole time, which is neither beneficial nor trippy and can often be uncomfortable.​
  • Follow your normal routine, especially sleeping, eating, working and spiritual practice.​
  • Be conservative with consecutive doses. Building a tolerance is unlikely, but having a normal baseline improves integrity of action.​
  • Be discreet who you tell. Disinformation, stigma and prejudice are still mainstream.
 
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LSD, the problem-solving psychedelic

by P.G. Stafford and B.H. Golightly | Psychedelic-library.org

It was a week before registration and it depressed me tremendously that I had not spent the summer learning German, as planned. I had intended to give myself a crash course so I could take second-year German, which I needed for my study in physics. I had heard of a woman who had learned enough Spanish in a few days via LSD to speak it fluently. I'd taken LSD before, and while I couldn't see how she did this, I decided it was worth a try. I'd not even gotten around to picking up a textbook, but I did have a close friend who knew German well and who said he was willing to sit in while I took the drug and try to teach me the language.

Fortunately, I knew something about conjugation and declension, so I wasn't completely at sea. I wanted to get worked up and feel involved with the language, as it seemed that this must be part of the key to the problem, so I asked my friend to tell me about Schiller and Goethe, and why the verb came at the end. Almost immediately, after just a story or two, I knew I had been missing a lot in ignoring the Germans, and I really got excited. The thing that impressed me at first was the delicacy of the language (he was now giving me some simple words and phrases), and though I really messed it up, I was trying hard to imitate his pronunciation as I had never tried to mimic anything before.

For most people German may be guttural, but for me it was light and lacey. Before long, I was catching on even to the umlauts. Things were speeding up like mad, and there were floods of associations. My friend had only to give me a German word, and almost immediately I knew what it was through cognates. It turned out that it wasn't even necessary for him to ask me what it sounded like. Memory, of course, is a matter of association, and boy, was I ever linking things up! I had no difficulty recalling words he had given me, in fact, I was eager to string them together. In a couple of hours after that I was reading even some simple German, and it all made sense.

The whole experience was an explosion of discoveries. Normally, when you've been working on something for a long time and finally discover a solution, you get excited, and you can see implications everywhere. Much more than if you heard of someone else discovering the same thing. That's what was happening with me. With every new phrase I felt I was making major discoveries. When I was reading, it was as though I had discovered the Rosetta Stone and the world was waiting for my translation. Really wild!

 
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Thomas Anderson

Microdosing: The next frontier

by Kerry Banks | Jun 14 2019

Researcher, Thomas Anderson, a PhD student and cognitive neuroscientist at U of T, has zeroed in on the phenomenon of microdosing, an emerging trend in which people take about one-tenth the dose of LSD or psilocybin typically consumed for recreational use. Because the dose is so low, individuals reportedly experience only subtle changes and can go about their regular day without running the risk of hallucinations. Although there is no established factual evidence that microdosing yields any beneficial effects, many users are convinced that it works like a mega-vitamin pill for the brain, sharpening creativity and cognition, and improving mood.

In 2017, Mr. Anderson and Rotem Petranker, a graduate student of psychology at York University, conducted one of the first scientific investigations of microdosing. Through an anonymous online survey, they queried 909 participants ranging in age from late teens to late 70s from 29 countries about the quantity and frequency of their psychedelic use, their reasons for microdosing, the effect on mood, focus and creativity, and the benefits and drawbacks. The study found that microdosers scored higher on measures of wisdom, open-mindedness and creativity, and lower on neurotic and dysfunctional attitudes.

A few people reported increased anxiety while microdosing, but the most common drawback cited was the illegal status of these drugs, which compels users to obtain them on the black market. “People reported having a hard time finding their dosage or having to deal with drug dealers and being anxious about how they’re partaking in an illegal activity,” says Mr. Petranker.

In the wake of this innovative study, the pair recently launched the University of Toronto Centre for Psychedelic Studies, which they hope will become a hub for North American research into psychedelics. Mr. Anderson says their next project is a randomized, placebo-controlled trial that will involve giving measured doses of psilocybin to 100 participants. They have secured $350,000 in funding from the Canadian charity Singhal Health Foundation and are now completing a Health Canada application that will enable them to acquire a quantity of medical-grade psilocybin. “Our goal,” says Mr. Anderson, “is to use conventional methods and do the best science we can to determine if microdosing actually works.”

Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, Dr. Tupper says that BCCSU is preparing for its second foray into psychedelics: the use of psilocybin for the treatment of substance-use disorders. But this type of research still faces serious obstacles. The MMDA project took six years and $200,000 simply to get in motion, and the phase III trial is expected to cost about $26 million.

“Funding is a constant headache because we don’t have support from the pharmaceutical industry,” says Dr. Haden. Instead, MAPS’ funding comes from private donors, many of them connected with the tech sector. As Dr. Haden notes, because the therapy and cure for PSTD involves so few doses of MDMA, it doesn’t suit the business model of Big Pharma. “The drug companies want drugs that people have to take on a daily basis, to treat symptoms, not the problem.”

Should this avenue of research continue to produce positive results, however, we may be on the brink of a revolution in mental health care. As the influential Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof once stated: “It does not seem to be an exaggeration to say that psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, may become for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology or the telescope is for astronomy.”

 
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Improved mood and focus reported by microdosers

Neuroscience News | July 15, 2019

A University of Toronto Mississauga researcher and his colleagues have “uncovered high potential research avenues” for assessing the benefits and drawbacks of microdosing with the psychedelic substances LSD and psilocybin. For some, microdosing may provide a possible alternative to SSRI antidepressants.

Their study, published in the latest Harm Reduction Journal, found that people who took very small doses of psychedelic substances commonly reported improved mood and focus, along with concerns about illegality and stigma.

Microdosing refers to the practice of regularly ingesting small, non-hallucinogenic amounts of psychedelic substances. The National Post traces the trend back to 2010 when biohackers began seeking a competitive edge; it has continued to grow. Thomas Anderson, a Ph.D. student and cognitive neuroscientist, associate professor of psychology Norman Farb, Rotem Petranker from York University, and colleagues from the U of T Faculty of Medicine and U of T Scarborough are the first to explore microdosing scientifically.

“The most common benefit was improved mood, which suggests that researching microdosing as a potential pharmacotherapeutic treatment for depression could be worthwhile,” Anderson says. “Microdosing could provide a possible alternative to SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a class of drugs commonly used to fight depression], which are great but don’t work for everyone. Microdosing won’t work for everyone, either, but it could provide a possible alternative to other treatment pathways.”

Participants also reported improved creativity, which includes divergent thinking, curiosity, and openness. This creativity finding agrees with another recent publication by Anderson and colleagues that reported microdosers were more creative and open and less neurotic and dysfunctional.

In the paper, Anderson and colleagues collected reports from almost 300 self-identified microdosers and have distilled the reported improvements into categories. The top categories were: improved mood (27 percent of reports), focus (15 percent), creativity (13 percent), and self-efficacy (11 percent). Mood refers not only to happiness and well-being but also to reduced depression, according to participants.

The top challenges associated with microdosing were physiological discomfort and concerns about illegality. The discomfort included complaints such as headaches, nausea, and insomnia, while illegality posed the biggest concern for microdosers, who must shop the black market to get psychedelics. "They may not be sure of the purity of their purchases and there may be an irregular supply. Stigma concerning illegal substances was also present, but users may not face as much stigma as the microdosing community fears," says Anderson.

“Many people are relatively accepting of psychedelics privately, but the same people can incorrectly believe that others are not so accepting and so they think there is lots of stigma when there isn’t. We’ve had academics come out of the woodwork to support us—we have not heard from anyone that’s actually against the responsible scientific study of these substances.”

The authors caution that the study makes no causal claims; it simply reflects the experiences of people involved in microdosing. “Scientifically speaking, we don’t know if microdosing does anything at all,” says Anderson. "The goal of the paper is to provide a basis for future research,” he says, "and it reveals high potential research avenues so funding can be spent investigating the most promising uses of microdosing."

“Ultimately, pre-registered randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) of microdosing psychedelics are needed to test its safety and efficacy,”
the authors write.

 
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Microdosers report improved mood, focus and creativity*

The Conversation | Jul 16 2019

Microdosing psychedelics is a growing trend that involves ingesting very small sub-hallucinogenic amounts of substances like LSD or dried psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

We ran a large-scale, pre-registered global research study asking participants to report what they like and dislike about microdosing.

The three most commonly reported benefits were: improved mood, increased focus and enhanced creativity.

The three most common challenges were: illegality (by a wide margin), physiological discomfort and “other concerns” such as the unknown risk profile of microdosing and forgetting to take a regular dose.

What does microdosing involve?

When people microdose, they normally consume about a tenth of a recreational dose of a psychedelic substance, although doses vary between people. The dose is sub-hallucinogenic; people who microdose aren’t “tripping.” Microdosers go about their daily lives, many taking care of children or working in offices, expecting a little boost.

Although we don’t know what microdosing does (if anything), it is a growing trend. Some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are becoming microdosing coaches, touting the purported benefits of microdosing.

A small scientific community has also started asking pre-defined questions about what microdosing may do, but we figured we’d ask people what they experience, from the ground up.

We recruited 909 participants from all over the world using forums like r/microdosing. In one section of our survey, 278 participants told us about the three main benefits of microdosing for them, and the three main challenges they had to cope with.

If you’re curious to see everything that people reported, our paper is available here. We are making the data available publicly, at no cost, as part of our commitment to Open Science.

More confident, motivated and productive

The benefits our participants reported mostly match what people have been reporting anecdotally. They said microdosing helped with mood, focus, creativity, self-efficacy, energy and more.

These findings, like creativity, square well with our previous research.

Our approach was to take individual reports and classify them into categories. This way we got an idea of how common each of these reports was, helping us guide future research down the most promising avenues.

For example, the most commonly reported benefit was improved mood (26.6 per cent of people) making mood the highest-potential area for future research to focus on. Creativity is another obvious area.

Perhaps less intuitive is that many people reported microdosing made them more confidant, motivated and productive, so this also seems worth researching.

In contrast, only 4.2 per cent of people mentioned reduced anxiety and several people reported increased anxiety, so studying microdosing for anxiety reduction seems less promising.

These data indicate perceived outcomes and do not indicate confirmed effects.

Headaches, gastrointestinal issues, insomnia

The most common challenge was illegality and this was mentioned in almost a third of reports. In our coding of responses, illegality involved having to deal with the black market, social stigma around using illegal substances and difficulty with dose accuracy and purity.

Always test your dose! You never know what you get when you’re buying unregulated substances!

This challenge is not due to microdosing itself so much as social policy and norms. As research on psychedelics grows, these substances may eventually be decriminalized or legalized, which could dispel the most common challenge reported in our sample.

Next up was physiological discomfort: in 18 per cent of reports, participants described headaches, gastrointestinal issues, insomnia and other unwanted side-effects of microdosing.

Research should examine these possible side effects and consider how they compare to the profiles of the many legal substances available, such as anti-depressants, which also cause side effects.

Participants also mentioned other concerns, such as not knowing whether there could be harmful interactions between psychedelics and other medications, and lack of research evidence about the long-term effects of microdosing.

What’s next for microdosing research?

It is possible that microdosing psychedelics was unrelated to many of the benefits and challenges participants reported. People often feel better or worse even when taking totally inert substances, like sugar pills. This is commonly known as the placebo effect.

Randomized placebo-controlled trials are required to determine what the true outcomes of microdosing are, which is why we’re planning to run one soon.

Our results suggest that microdosers get a lot out of their use of psychedelics, while negative reports mostly focus on social and physiological concerns. Overall, participants reported less challenges than benefits, and they reported that the benefits were more important than the challenges.

There are still more unknowns than knowns when it comes to microdosing: does microdosing cause any of these effects, or is it all placebo? Could there be long-term negative consequences to microdosing? Are certain people more likely to experience specific benefits or challenges?

This study creates a road map for researchers to follow. We encourage researchers to test whether these benefits and challenges occur in a lab setting, as we will be doing in the coming months and years.

*From the article here :
 
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Microdosing boosts mood and mental acuity

University of California, Davis | March 4, 2019

The growing popularity of microdosing is based on anecdotal reports of its benefits. Now, a study in rats by researchers at the University of California, Davis suggests microdosing can provide relief for symptoms of depression and anxiety, but also found potential negative effects. The work is published March 4 in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

"Prior to our study, essentially nothing was known about the effects of psychedelic microdosing on animal behaviors," said David Olson, assistant professor in the UC Davis departments of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, who leads the research team. "This is the first time anyone has demonstrated in animals that psychedelic microdosing might actually have some beneficial effects, particularly for depression or anxiety. It's exciting, but the potentially adverse changes in neuronal structure and metabolism that we observe emphasize the need for additional studies."

Testing microdosing claims

Olson's group microdosed male and female rats with DMT. A psychedelic compound found in ayahuasca tea, DMT's molecular structure is embedded within the structures of drugs such as LSD and psilocybin. The researchers administered one-tenth of the estimated hallucinogenic dose in rats (1 milligram per kilogram of body weight) every third day for 2 months. Although there is no well-established definition of what constitutes a microdose, people who microdose tend to follow a similar schedule, taking one-tenth of a "trip" dose every three days. The rats were treated for two weeks before beginning behavioral tests relevant to mood, anxiety and cognitive function, and tests were completed during the two-day period between doses.

Olson's group found DMT microdosing helped rats to overcome a "fear response" in a test considered to be a model of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in humans. The researchers also documented reduced immobility in an experiment that measures the effectiveness of antidepressant compounds. Less immobility is associated with antidepressant effects. In tests of cognitive function and sociability, the UC Davis researchers did not find any obvious impairments or improvements, which contrasts with human anecdotal reports.

"Our study demonstrates that psychedelics can produce beneficial behavioral effects without drastically altering perception, which is a critical step towards producing viable medicines inspired by these compounds," Olson said.

 
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Microdosing LSD for 1 month improved mood, productivity

Stephen Johnson | 15 April, 2019

Might microdosing LSD and psilocybin be a safe, effective way to treat depression and other disorders?

A recent study collected the self-reports of more than 1,000 people who microdosed LSD or psilocybin regularly for about a month. The results showed that most people experienced more positive moods, less depression and increased productivity. These results are preliminary, and microdosing remains an under-researched area.

Microdosing psychedelic drugs on a regular basis might be a safe way to improve your mood and productivity, according to a new study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

Microdosing is a practice in which you take a very small or "sub-perceptual" dose of drugs in order to reap the benefits of the drug without experiencing too much of its consciousness-altering effects. In the recent study, researchers collected reports from more than 1,000 participants in 59 countries, most of whom microdosed once every three days for a month. (The researchers defined microdoses as between 7 to 13 micrograms for LSD; 0.1 to 0.4 grams for dried psilocybin mushrooms.)

"This microdosing regimen was followed by "improvements in negative moods, especially depression, and increases in positive moods. Increased energy, improved work effectiveness, and improved health habits were observed in clinical and nonclinical populations," the researchers wrote. One participant reported: "Feeling productive, able to focus on what I choose, enjoying relationships, good energy, and not recalling that I took anything."

The preliminary results suggest that "microdosing has none of the classic exciting effects of psychedelics, is safer, and many people all over the world report taking these low doses to be beneficial," study author James Fadiman, who's been researching psychedelics for decades, told PsyPost.

Still, the researchers cautioned against attaching clinical significance to their statistically significant results, which came from self-reports.

"While statistical significance can give us information about a low-level change over a large population — for example, improving one point on the Beck Depression Inventory — this may mean little to people suffering from depression," they wrote. "However, many participants informed us that they found microdosing to be an effective antidepressant, or replacement for their antidepressants. For example, a 70-year-old man writes: 'For the first time in 31 years, I am off antidepressants' and includes descriptions of moments when his emotional range has clearly been expanded."

The researchers also mentioned that the positive results could be explained by the placebo effect. That possibility didn't matter to at least one participant, who wrote: "I don't care if it's a placebo or not, all I know is I haven't felt this good in decades."

 
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How one year of microdosing helped my career, relationships, and happiness

by Janet L. Chang | BetterHumans | 21 Sep 2017

Recently, I completed a one-year experiment in which I took microdoses of psilocybin  almost daily. My goal was to understand the impact it would have on my work, relationships, and mental health.

I approached the experiment as a relative newcomer to the world of psychedelics. Until the last few years, I wasn’t the kind of person to take recreational drugs. That said, I’m invested in health, mindfulness, and personal growth. I’ve scored in the top 99th percentile for standardized tests, trained and competed in the Olympic speedskating, and run a startup for one of my business idols. Over the last 14 years, I have used and refined everything from meditation, yoga, intermittent fasting, paleo, Bulletproof, ketogenic, triathlons, powerlifting, “lifestyle design”, the “digital nomad” lifestyle, “Getting Things Done”, the principles of rationality, and also, nootropics — or ‘smart drugs’.

By the time I was 25, I created a life I was proud of, all while sober. So my perspective on recreational drugs was that anyone dependent on them had major problems they were running away from. I never thought of drugs as conducive to growth.

Fortunately, I was wrong. After taking them in Asia, my perspective on psychedelics changed, and they became a vehicle for greater self-reflection and awareness. Psychedelics appealed to me for their ability to work through painful emotions of the past. My use of psychedelics has shown various benefits, including reducing my social anxiety and addressing things that even I, a so-called self-improvement fanatic, hadn’t gotten around to facing within myself.

I woke up after my first dose of mushrooms to find my lifelong fear of public speaking gone. After mushrooms, I was exposed to LSD and MDMA, and traveled to Peru for a series of Ayahuasca ceremonies. They worked beyond my wildest expectations. Psychedelics served as eye-opening means for cultivating meaningful personal insight. I healed from childhood traumas I didn’t even know I had.

At some point, I began wondering if there was a sustainable way to leverage the power of psychedelics on a daily basis. It was at this time I became eager to discover whether smaller doses could help improve my work, relationships, and mood.

How microdosing mushrooms impacted my life

The year I microdosed happened to be a particularly difficult one.

I was recovering from some major career setbacks due to a series of unfortunate events involving a spinal injury that ended my Olympic speedskating career and impending identity crisis, as well as a case of sexual harassment followed by retaliation and blackmail. This left me taking a pay cut to pursue jobs in other industries. Meanwhile, there were financial challenges in my family. I had plunged into a fog of depression and anxiety almost as dark as the suicidal depression I experienced during my teenage years. I don’t know how I could have made it through without microdosing.

By the end of the year, I had made a career transition that led to more than doubling my salary from my first job. I improved my emotional well-being and developed better relationships with the people around me. It didn’t solve all of my problems or make my life a rainbow-glittery world of unicorns — but it definitely made the days easier as I picked up the pieces of my life and started anew.

Relationship with myself

In my relationship with myself, I became more aware of my emotions in every passing moment, and could address them on the spot instead of my letting them build up. I was in a better mood. My mind stopped making up reasons for me to be unhappy, and instead focused my attention on the positive. Some days, a sense of inner peace would permeate my being.

I was less self-conscious and more creative. Everyday, more ideas and insights would pop into my mind than I knew what to do with. I held a greater appreciation for the arts. My apartment went from minimalistic and drab to tastefully and beautifully decorated. My alone time went from dead silent to filled with music, song, and dance. Despite a lifetime of hating clothes shopping, I started to enjoy every part of the process. I took up a dance class, and went from being a robotic dancer to deftly ‘on point’. I joked and laughed more.

Overall, my life became more emotionally attuned, social, happy, and carefree, and less rigid, serious, and fear-driven. Many friends remarked that I was more relaxed and calm, and that I had more energy.

Relationships with others

I was more comfortable in public, and less anxious in conversations. Although I already considered myself open-minded and accepting, I became more tolerant and compassionate towards people. I would chat with convenience store owners, give smiles to strangers walking down the street, and once had a 4-hour conversation with my coffee shop barista while I waited in an airport.

At work, I made small talk without becoming overly self-conscious, I led meetings without anxiety choking me up, I had better check-ins with my boss and clients, and they all seemed more impressed with my work than before. With the people close to me, doors of intimacy were opened where there were none before. I watched myself as I expressed both positive and negative emotions in ways that made people comfortable and at ease.

Over the year I microdosed, I became a more empathetic, compassionate, and affectionate person. I began to live with more acceptance, gratitude, and presence of mind. My workaholic lifestyle turned into one of spontaneity, creativity, self-expression, and lightheartedness. I continued to live out my values, feeling even more connected than before.

Reflections and what’s next

My one-year experiment with microdosing definitely changed my life for the better. My career, relationships, and happiness improved. In future experiments, I hope to investigate the effects of microdoses of LSD and other substances, as well as alternatives to psychedelics for creating the same positive changes. I’d love to learn about the benefits that microdosing has on other people, especially for different goals and challenges.

Microdosing served as training wheels for helping my brain develop the necessary pathways that it needed to access on its own. Nowadays, I can reach those benefits without microdosing, while keeping the parts of my personality that bring me joy. With time, I won’t need to microdose anymore on a regular basis, but just to use it on occasion, when I want to access more of my emotional experience. Ultimately, I hope to remain connected to all parts of my psyche without the help of psychedelics, but they’re always there if I need them.

https://betterhumans.coach.me/how-on...s-715dbccdfae4
 
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Microdosing and the workplace*

by Sarah Souli | Medium | 11 Oct 2019

Microdosing is finding a new audience with a new purpose.

Some years ago, standing in a Brooklyn kitchen surrounded by entirely legal mind-altering substances — ground coffee, bottles of wine, loose rolling tobacco — a friend of mine said something that’s been seared into my brain:

“Drugs are an integral part of the human experience.”

It was said so nonchalantly, by someone who doesn’t even like smoking weed, that I couldn’t come up with a single follow-up question. That one, simple statement removed the politics, economics, and social guilt associated with drug-taking. And, of course, she was totally correct.

“Dr. Ronald Siegel suggests that the human urge to intoxicate is so strong that it is the fourth most primal instinct after hunger, thirst and sex,” write the authors of a 2007 University of Cambridge dissertation on the medical history of psychedelic drugs. “He argues that people all over the world have historically always used psychoactive substances and that the desire to take mind-altering drugs is inherently programmed into our biology as a natural drive.”

Psychedelic plants have been used by people in Mexico and Guatemala since at least 300 BC; much earlier, around 7000 BC, indigenous people in those areas built temples to mushroom deities. Australian aborigines, Amazon Indians, and Kalahari desert Bushmen all used pharmacological plants; over in the southwest United States, Navajo tribesmen smoked peyote during spiritual ceremonies.

For the past century or so, much of the conversation around drugs has been centered on how to curb this biological drive: all natural and man-made psychedelics, such as LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, ecstasy, and ketamine were marked Class A illegal substances in 1971. (Ironically, these drugs were first used to treat depression). The U.S. spends an annual $78 billion on the so-called War on Drugs; in Mexico, militarizing the drug war has led to a dramatic increase in the country’s homicide rate.

In much of the world, people still hold derogatory images of drug users. Societal shame places the onus on drug-users — who now constitute about a quarter of a billion of the world’s population. “Under a prohibitionist regime, a person who uses drugs is engaging in an act that is illegal, which increases stigma. This makes it even easier to discriminate against people who use drugs, and enables policies that treat people who use drugs as subhumans, non-citizens, and scapegoats for wider societal problems,” notes the Global Commission on Drug Policy in a 2017 report.

But in the past few years, there’s been a growing amount of interest — and acceptance — in recreational drug use in Western countries. Marijuana laws across Europe and North America have relaxed; Portugal (home to the House) decriminalized all drug use back in 2001. Most interesting of all, there’s been renewed and enthusiastic interest in the use of psychedelics. Taking small amounts of psychedelics, known as micro-dosing, is treated as the “life hack du jour” in Silicon Valley.

Micro-dosing means that instead of consuming a full portion of a mind-altering substance, you take just a little bit, generally every three days. The term was introduced by American psychologist and researcher James Faidan in his 2011 book The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide. Low doses of psychedelics are meant for “problem-solving,” unlike moderate hits for therapeutic purposes, and large amounts for spiritual highs.

“Despite so much interest in the subject, we still don’t have any agreed scientific consensus on what microdosing is — like what constitutes a ‘micro’ dose, how often someone would take it, and even if there may be potential health effects,” Professor David Nutt, Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London told Newsweek in July. But while a minority of users report feeling anxious or sick, the majority of recreational users describe their micro trips with overwhelmingly positive emotions. (Nutt’s colleague at Imperial College, Robin Carhart-Harris, has been doing groundbreaking research on micro-doses in treating depression.) And a Leiden University study found that microdosing on mushrooms “allowed participants to create more out-of-the-box alternative solutions for a problem.”

“I’m generally more conscious of my environment, much more appreciative and grateful. In terms of thinking, I’m much more focused, my mind is calm and clear, very reflective, and I like to spend time with myself without feeling lonely,”
one recreational user, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Journal. “In that sense I would say I think more creatively, because I’m able to control my mind much more on an abstract, meta level that allows me to put things into context differently.”

The most common drug to micro-dose (and the one Faidan has conducted the most research on) is LSD. The drug was discovered by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hoffman, who started microdosing in his 70s. He lived to be 102, and was still giving, by all accounts, lucid, multi-hour lectures in his 100th year. That’s one of the more interesting benefits of microdosing: it brings out qualities that are beneficial to the workplace.

“I’ll take some this Wednesday, because my business is expanding and I’m designing that day. Microdosing will help with the creative side,” a forty-year-old, UK-based woman named Chloe told The Irish Times. “I’ll take some on Thursday, because I’m trying to upskill one of my managers and it helps with my human interaction and empathy. But if I knew I was going to be sitting at home doing the bookkeeping and looking at spreadsheets for hours, I wouldn’t microdose — I’d get distracted.”

As microdosing becomes more mainstream, psychedelics are inching into the for-profit world. Synthesis, a start-up based in Amsterdam, leads legal, medically-supervised retreats for people who want to “catalyze creative breakthroughs” and “improve confidence.” U.S. and UK companies like Compass have made the news for securing FDA breakthrough medication status for psilocybin (a naturally occurring prodrug in mushrooms) in the treatment of depression. In Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, its increasingly common for execs and techies to take microhits of LSD to gain new insights into financial deals. But perhaps the biggest benefit from microdosing is outside of the capitalist cycle.

“A very common effect of microdosing, or psychedelics in general, is that people understand how nature teaches us to ‘just be’. …This is very counter to our overly capitalistic view that seems to state: the more you produce, the more you’re worth,” Amanda Schendel, the leader of Women in Psychedelics and founder and CEO of The Buena Vida Psychedelic Retreats, told Girlboss earlier this year. “We’ve learned that we have to earn love by somehow being worthy. Psychedelics teach us that we are love and can create it from within.”

At the very least it’s something to think about with your Monday morning cup of coffee.

*From the article here :
 
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Risks and benefits of microdosing revealed

by Ana Sandoiu | Medical News Today | 4 March 2019

New research, published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, finds both potential benefits and risks of using psychedelic microdosing to treat mental health problems. The study reveals effects on cognitive skills and sociability, as well as metabolic and neuronal consequences.

An emerging body of research is making a case for using psychedelic drugs to treat mental health issues.

For instance, two studies published last year showed that psilocybin, the active psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, alleviated symptoms of treatment-resistant depression.

Moreover, the psilocybin did so without causing any side effects of conventional antidepressants. Such side effects typically include emotional blunting or apathy.

Another study looked at the potential of the Amazonian plant mixture Ayahuasca to treat depression and alcohol use disorder. Ayahuasca "may be a safe and promising treatment" for these mental health problems, concluded the researchers.

People who use psychedelics to improve their mental health and boost their overall well-being tend to do so with a technique called microdosing. Taking microdoses of a psychedelic drug means taking only a fraction of a dose that is required to have a full-blown psychedelic experience, or "trip."

Until now, no studies had examined the effects of microdosing on animal behavior. But new research investigates the effects of the hallucinogen N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on male and female rodents in an attempt to discover its effects on mental and physical health.

The lead researcher is David Olson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, Davis.

Positive effects of DMT microdosing

The researchers chose DMT because the compound can be found in Ayahuasca, and its molecular structure is analogous to that of other microdosing drugs, such as LSD and psilocybin.

Olson and colleagues gave the rats 1 milligram/kilogram of body weight, which is a tenth of the dose that would be necessary to induce a hallucinogenic experience in the rodents.

The rats took this dose once every 3 days for a period of 2 months. In the 2 days between the doses, the researchers tested the rats' mood and cognitive function.

The scientists found that DMT helped the rodents overcome their fears in a test used to model anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Another common test examines the effectiveness of antidepressants by measuring the rodents' "freezing" behavior. This is a widely accepted method of assessing the degree of fear in rodents.

Researchers believe that the less a rodent freezes in response to a threat and the more mobile they are, the more effective the antidepressants are.

In the present study, DMT microdosing led to less immobility in the rodents. Cognitive and sociability tests, on the other hand, did not reveal any effects of DMT.

Side effects on neuronal growth, metabolism

The researchers also noted some side effects. Male rats gained a significant amount of weight after the treatment. Additionally, female rats developed neuronal atrophy.

The researchers explain that the latter results contradict those of previous studies that the team had conducted. These earlier findings showed that a single acute dose of DMT had the opposite effect — it boosted neuronal growth.

Such conflicting results may suggest that an acute dose of psychedelic substances affects the brain differently from intermittent microdoses.

Side effects notwithstanding, say the authors, the current results are promising because they suggest that researchers can separate the psychedelic effects from the therapeutic ones.

"Our study demonstrates that psychedelics can produce beneficial behavioral effects without drastically altering perception, which is a critical step towards producing viable medicines inspired by these compounds," says Olson.

"Prior to our study, essentially nothing was known about the effects of psychedelic microdosing on animal behaviors," explains the lead researcher.

"This is the first time anyone has demonstrated in animals that psychedelic microdosing might actually have some beneficial effects, particularly for depression or anxiety. It's exciting, but the potentially adverse changes in neuronal structure and metabolism that we observe emphasize the need for additional studies."

 
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Paul Stamets

Quantified Citizen launches first-ever microdosing app for iOS

by Paul Austin | The Third Wave | Nov 13 2019

On Wednesday, November 13, renowned mycologist Paul Stamets announced the launch of the world’s first mobile microdosing study on the Joe Rogan podcast. Dr. Zachary Walsh is conducting the study in collaboration with MAPS Canada, the BC Centre on Substance Use, and Quantified Citizen. Study results will help researchers better understand the effects of microdosing psychedelics on cognitive performance and mental health.

Participation in this cutting-edge research is completely anonymous as participants will not be asked to identify name, email, or date of birth. Due to the legal status of psychedelics, researchers will not provide the actual microdoses. It is up to each person to source the psychedelic, with a clear understanding that psychedelic use outside of clinical trials is still illegal in almost every jurisdiction.

How does it work?

Participating in the mobile microdosing study requires approximately three total hours over three months. Once you download the application, it will ask for basic demographic information, medical history, and any self-reported use of psychedelics. Then, you must complete an initial assessment, so researchers understand your baseline level of cognitive performance and general mental health.

After completing the initial questions, you are asked to go about your regular routines for up to 3 months, completing 1-minute questionnaires daily. Every month, you must repeat the battery of cognitive performance and mental health assessments (same as the baseline) as a way to understand how your baseline has shifted.

At the end of your microdosing protocol, you will be asked to complete a short closing survey that takes 5 minutes.

Here’s the kicker: you do not need microdose to take part in this study. As part of the study, researchers are interested in observing those who microdose and those who do not.

Why does this matter?

Due to the illicit nature of psychedelic substances, carrying out clinical research on microdosing has proved to be complicated. It is incredibly expensive to go through the process of approval, and there are strict limitations on how clinical research happens.

In developing this mobile microdosing application, the team at Quantified Citizen wants to generate high-quality data as possible through the utilization of emerging technologies like self-reporting and mobile apps.

Their objective sounds very similar to Dr. Jim Fadiman’s when he spoke about the utility of the initial research he and Dr. Sophia Korb published. According to the homepage of MicrodoseStudy.com, “the results of this study will generate hypotheses for future research and provide an improved understanding of the effects of microdosing psychedelics, which ideally will lead to better safety and maximize potential benefits.”

Whereas Dr. Fadiman focused much of his research on mental health issues, the team behind the mobile microdosing study is more interested in general cognitive effects. One key focus is neurogenesis and how microdosing helps us to become more adaptable.

Are you interested in finding out more details about the mobile microdosing study? You can get the full run-down of how to participate by checking out MicrodoseStudy.com.

 
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Who are the tech execs microdosing LSD?*

By Hayden Vernon | GQ Magazine | 16 Nov 2019

LSD used to be about turning on, tuning in and dropping out. How times have changed. In recent years, a particular breed of high-achieving technology executive has begun seeing LSD as a route up the career ladder. Where once it was about losing control, it is now being seen by some as a way to gain it – renewing focus, improving mood. The difference, they believe, is the dose. According to the evangelists, a “microdose” – usually up to a 20th of a regular dose – changes the drug’s effect, although not, of course, its legal status. As a class A, possession in the UK carries a maximum sentence of seven years. LSD is also illegal in California, yet it has caught on among the entrepreneurial set of Silicon Valley. Tim Ferriss, an investor and author of The 4-Hour Workweek, says that almost all the billionaires he knows are using psychedelics regularly.

The tech world is notably obsessed with efficiency and disruption, principles that have bled into the personal lives of some of its leading lights, with a number of them turning to “biohacking” their bodies, using vitamins, exercise and now drugs such as LSD.

It appears to be part of a broader psychedelic renaissance, with experiments in microdosing extending to more extreme psychedelics too – notably ayahuasca, which contains the psychoactive compound DMT (like LSD, a class-A substance in the UK). This South American plant has long piqued the interest of people who want a trip so profound that it results in “ego death,” to use its proponents’ terminology. But while shifting perspective away from an “I”-centric world-view might be a form of enlightenment, it comes at a cost. Those who take the drug usually experience vomiting and diarrhoea and the curious souls who visit shamans prepared to administer the potion do so as part of a highly controlled ritual, often with doctors on standby. And while few psychedelics are physically addictive, users can become psychologically dependent on LSD and DMT and, long-term, the inducement of persistent psychosis is also considered a risk.

Yet, according to some, regular microdoses of ayahuasca have had a positive impact on their psychological wellbeing. “I have fewer headaches and mental imbalances,” says Liana Silvey, who describes suffering from depression until she tried microdosing the vine a year ago. Or take Jay Rossi, 42, who has been in and out of treatment for heroin addiction and mental health problems for most of his adult life. Fed up with cycling through conventional treatment methods, he turned to microdosing ayahuasca at the start of this year. He has not touched alcohol or drugs since. “I had more get-up-and-go, more motivation. It was a stepping stone for me to get back on my feet,” he says.

But does microdosing work? “We need to know both the potential benefits and risks,” says David Olson, a professor at the University Of California, who recently led one of the first studies into the effects of microdosing DMT. Rats injected with tiny doses showed a positive effect on the rodents’ fear responses, meaning in theory the drug could be beneficial in the treatment of anxiety and PTSD.

Olson compares the current trend of microdosing psychedelics to the illegal use of anabolic steroids in the Seventies and Eighties, when bodybuilders realised the drugs had incredible effects on muscle growth. It took scientists a while to catch up with anecdotal reports of the benefits and understand the risks. Olson says the same thing is happening with microdosing. “Just as anabolic steroids can be used in certain cases to improve health, these drugs might find therapeutic uses – with enough research.” Conversely, Olson’s DMT study also revealed adverse reactions, including female rats experiencing a breakdown of neurons that looked similar to the effects of chronic stress. It is also difficult to disentangle microdosing from placebo effects.

Rossi, however, is less concerned. He thinks even if microdosing is just a placebo, it will still show that people have the power within themselves to overcome their problems. “If it’s working,” he says, “then that’s what it’s about.”

*From the article here :
 
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You can now buy a microdosing kit online

by Danielle Simone Brand | DoubleBlind | 17 Jan 2020

Canadian company Microdelics offers ready-made kits containing the LSD analog, 1P-LSD.

Microdosing: a growing trend embraced by Silicon Valley biohackers, experienced psychonauts, and those looking for a subtle, psychedelic reframe in consciousness. Felt as a little boost, or a way to get your toes wet if you’re curious about psychedelics, the practice of microdosing is thought to provide many of the benefits of say LSD or psilocybin without the intensity of a full psychoactive experience.

By and large, however, microdosing has required a robust DIY approach in order to source the material, dilute it properly, and estimate a dose small enough not to make you trip. In the case of LSD—which comes in tab, liquid, or other forms—figuring out a microdose can be a bit trickier than simply weighing out dried mushrooms.

To take care of that footwork, however, a Canadian company called Microdelics has come out with a microdosing kit. The ready-made kit comes in a little blue bottle containing 100 micrograms (mcgs) of 1P-LSD, a derivative and functional analogue of LSD, along with instructions to measure specific doses. Generally speaking, microdose recommendations range from 7-20 mcgs.

1-propionyl lysergic acid diethylamide, or 1P-LSD, is structurally similar, but not identical, to the original molecule. While the exact mechanisms of its action are not yet understood, it’s possible that 1P-LSD is a “prodrug” of LSD—meaning that it could convert to LSD in the body. In mice, 1P-LSD is shown to contain only 38 percent of the strength of LSD, though that difference doesn’t necessarily translate directly to humans. Many people, in fact, report that the two molecules are nearly identical in effect.

Because of its subtle molecular differences, 1P-LSD bypasses prohibition in places like Canada, occupying a kind of legal grey area where regular LSD may otherwise be illegal. 1P-LSD can be found online and is often marketed as a research chemical not meant for human consumption, though thousands of people do consume it. Following the protocol put forth by psychologist and microdosing expert James Fadiman—to microdose every four days—users of 1P-LSD report an increased sense of wellbeing and connectedness along, with greater focus and a subtle energy boost.

Jerry Martin, CEO of Microdelics, founded the company in 2019 to increase access to psychedelics—which he credits with helping him overcome depression. A former cannabis dispensary owner who earned the moniker King of Compassion in the Saskatchewan town where he ran his shop for four years, Martin has been part of the plant medicine movement for almost a decade and also owns a company guiding ayahuasca tours in Peru.

According to Martin, while consuming larger doses of psychedelics (i.e. macrodosing) can be particularly helpful for people with mental health issues who are adequately prepared and/or under the care of an experienced guide, microdosing offers its own rewards. Martin credits microdosing with improving his quality of life, including his attitude and workflow. “It’s done wonders for me,” he tells DoubleBlind.

Currently, psychologist Richard Knowles of Delos Psyche Research Group is working with Martin and Microdelics to secure approval and funding for the first double-blind, dose response study on the psychological effects of microdosing. “If the study is approved, researchers will use eleven different psychometric assessments to track changes in depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness, quality of life, social activity, engagement, absorption, occupational burnout, emotional dysregulation, and more,” Knowles tells DoubleBlind. He and Martin hope to initiate the study within the next few months.

Microdelics ships product within Canada and to countries without the kind of analog or prodrug laws that explicitly make 1P-LSD illegal—which for now excludes the United States, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Japan. But Martin has hopes that, as the psychedelics movement evolves and decriminalization efforts progress, access to this potentially transformative molecule will improve. “It’s not really meant to get you high,” he says. “It’s meant to enhance the normal functionality of your life.”

 
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As microdosing explodes in popularity, a new look at the benefits and side effects of daily psychedelic use

by Kristina Pavlovic and Evan Stulberger and Sarah Wallace | NBC | 4 Jan 2019

In the past three years, Google searches for the term “microdosing” have tripled, and books and articles on the subject are exploding.

Microdosing is described as taking an imperceptible dose of an illegal psychedelic drug, typically LSD, MDMA or Psilocybin, more commonly known as magic mushrooms. It’s a fraction – roughly a tenth - of a full psychedelic dose.

"It’s just been a constant upward trend, constantly on the rise," said a drug dealer who spoke with News 4 on condition of anonymity. He creates microdoses by taking psilocybin or "magic" mushrooms, grinding them to a powder and pressing them into pills that are a fraction of a full psychedelic dose.

"They don’t take it to get high, they take it to be more effective," he said.

The dealer refused to say exactly how much money he has made capitalizing on this trend but said his client base has grown to about 100 people in the metro area.

One man who takes microdoses described what he called a transformative experience: "I wanted to do so many things, I wanted to go to so many places, started painting, started drawing that day, I read a ton - it just made me want to be the most productive version of myself."

Some take it for other reasons. He said he has struggled with depression and anxiety, but said he that knows people in a variety of industries that are practicing microdosing "to better themselves and their careers."

He himself uses small amounts of psychedelics at work: "I'm able to connect the pieces of puzzles I'm working on a lot quicker. I’ve gotten a couple mentions on my overall demeanor, and people have told me that it’s dramatically improved my personality," he says - all because of his intermittent use of mushrooms. “There are people I sell to in the music industry, doctors, students that use it instead of Adderall, and people in the finance industry.”

Dr. David Nichols, a professor at the University of North Carolina, is the founding president of the Heffter Research Institute. He is one of the world’s most respected psychedelic researchers and has been studying these drugs for decades.

"I think it’s important for people to recognize that psychedelics are not the dangerous drugs they might have heard about, and it looks like they can treat conditions that we haven't been able to treat until now," he said.

Johns Hopkins, NYU and other institutions are studying the potential of psychedelic drugs to treat things from obsessive compulsive disorder to PTSD. The FDA has recently given breakthrough therapy designation to one study that is looking at psychedelics as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression. Those studies are looking at full hallucinogenic doses.

"There have not been any long-term studies where people have taken a psychedelic daily over a long period of time, and although the doses are small, we don’t really know if there might be changes in the endocrine system or to hormonal levels - we don’t know any of that," said Nichols.

"It’s really an important medication, and we need to draw the distinction between that and it being a recreational drug," Nichols added.

Johns Hopkins has recently recommended the DEA reschedule psilocybin mushrooms, pending the results of clinical trials, from a Schedule I or dangerous drug, down to a Schedule IV drug, one with low potential for abuse.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investig...nics-Side-Effects-Benefits-NYC-503881891.html
 
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Microdosing Iboga

From Bancopuma @ DMT Nexus :

Here is a guide for microdosing iboga that I helped compile with the guy who runs Reset.nu, I thought it may be of interest to some. It was made with TA tincture in mind, but also applies to the root bark as is. Microdosing is an accessible and low cost way of working with iboga safely and in a controlled manner for those that are curious and wish to work with the plant, and done this way it can be easily integrated into day to day life. It may also be wise for anyone contemplating a flood session with iboga to consider microdosing with the plant prior to this.

An iboga treatment provider told me that 500mg of root bark taken every four days works well as an anti-addiction treatment and antidepressant, and this can be taken in a '00' capsule for convenient dosing. Doses much lower than this will be effective, as the effects are cumulative. It is important to taste a tiny pinch of the root bark, so all your senses are able to experience the plant. It is important to set intent and state a positive affirmation on ingesting the root bark, and this is discussed below. This affirmation, in whatever form iboga comes in, is a vital part of the treatment not to be neglected.

Iboga (Tabernanthe iboga)

Iboga is an evergreen, flowering shrub, native to the rain forests of western Central Africa. The plant prefers well composted, well drained soils in a protected, partly shady position. Under the right conditions it can grow up to a height of 10 meters. The stem is erect and branching, its leaves are dark green, its flowers white to pink or yellowish, its fruits are orange and oval shaped. The magic of the iboga is to be found in the root bark, home to the powerful teacher that lingers in this extraordinary plant.

Historical origin of Iboga rites

For many generations, the iboga plant has played an important role for practitioners of the indigenous Bwiti religion in Central Africa. The Bwiti initiation rite to obtain spiritual maturity consists of the ingestion of a very strong dose of iboga, followed by an intense, mind-altering experience. Lower doses are taken during weekly ceremonies, as collective religious fervour, a moment for intense love and mutual understanding, while fuelling dancing and drumming late into the night. Through the iboga plant, the Bwitists feel that they strengthen their connection with the divine realm and experience a deep understanding for the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Bwiti is considered by its members as a universal religion, accessible to anyone who approaches it with respect and humility. Among the Bwitists, there is a widespread hope that one day the Bwiti and its iboga rituals will become known at the very core of western culture. A noble thought...

Iboga therapy in drug rehabilitation

Over the past decades, iboga treatment indeed found its way into western practices. Professionally guided, intense therapy with iboga has proven to be extremely successful in curing drug addictions. Recent studies have shown that iboga reduces dopamine concentrations in the body, hereby reducing the affects of certain abusive and highly addictive drugs. The plant will have to undergo more clinical research in order to become an officially registered medicament, but so far the results have been promising.

Iboga as a way to personal liberation / freedom of the soul

Iboga can play a powerful curative role but not only for drug addicts. Rooted in unpleasant past experiences and subsequent negative emotions, many of us are in one way or another caught up in patterns of thought and behaviour which limit us in our freedom. Those patterns are quite similar to addictions: despite their harmful character, we deceive ourselves into believing that they provide us a shortcut to comfort.

Iboga digs down into the depths of our mind. It will surface what is hidden and treasured, that what shapes us and keeps us in shape. Iboga can help any one of us to eliminate self-induced oppression, accelerate personal growth, and bring more joy to life.

Master your mind

Our environment nowadays demands us to operate on mind-based logic, it feels like there is very little space left to follow our hearts. Through the uncontrollable production of all kinds of thoughts, your mind is constantly influencing your behaviour. Don’t believe everything you think! The mind can be a useful practical tool, but should not be your guide.

The problem is that your mind feeds on old emotions and outdated information, thereby distracting your soul from its presence in the happenings of the now. The very Now is always New and should be experienced in total openness, allowing any new impulse to freely flow into your perception. You can be freed from your mind if you become aware of this dichotomy. Ask yourself: Who is this making me behave or react like this? Am I not free to have a new challenge and emotion in every new situation? Why should I be a slave to my thoughts, my preferences, my likes and dislikes, my... You, you are free!

Letting in the spirit of Iboga

One possibility to let the spirit of iboga in is to take what is considered a full dose. The journey that follows is not a journey for the faint at heart. Though there are a number of guidelines which can be followed to minimize any risks, the experience will not be of an easy nature.

A more gentle way of communicating with the spirit of the iboga plant is to take in much lower doses. If used in the right way, tiny amounts of this powerful plant are sufficient to regain control over one’s thoughts and actions. I discovered a new technique for self-treatment with Iboga tincture, which will be explained further in this guideline. The experience of myself and others have taught me that treatment with no more than a few drops a day can be surprisingly effective.

The Iboga TA 1:50 tincture

This tincture holds the essence of the iboga plant. Firstly, the root bark of the iboga is extracted into its purest form, being the combined Iboga alkaloids, while keeping the full spectrum of the plant uncompromised. Afterwards, the extract is dissolved in pure alcohol. The tincture that results from this technique is so strong that one drop suffices as one therapeutic dose.

A drop of iboga tincture contains 0.58 milligram of iboga TPA extract. This is the highest possible concentration pure alcohol can contain. The alcohol instantly carries the iboga extract into the bloodstream and the nervous system. One drop, entirely saturated with the iboga alkaloids, contains all of the plant’s properties, its spirit, its voice, and its vibration. This one single drop is your gateway to communication with the iboga spirit. However, to treat yourself successfully it takes a bit more.

The properties of the Ibogaine

The special characteristic of ibogaine (after being converted to noribogaine, by the liver) is that it occupies the receptors which are urging you into the repetition of a behavioural pattern or addiction. That is what makes it effective even in the most serious cases of drug addiction. Most addicts are cured within a day or four, without any withdrawal symptoms and with little chance for relapse.

With the micro dosage therapy it is possible to send the tiny bit of ibogaine that is captured in one drop of the tincture to exactly that receptor which is responsible for the thoughts and behavioural patterns that are keeping you in their grip. This method works most efficiently if you use the strength of your spirit to guide the healing to the right place. By expressing a powerful affirmation or intent at the very moment the iboga enters your senses and nervous system, your voice carries the iboga and you give directions to the plant teacher via your intent. This technique is a combination of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and iboga therapy, between a very accessible, holistic approach to psychotherapy and the most powerful healing plant in the world.

Implications for usage

With this self-treatment, you will pinpoint and reset one behavioural pattern or addiction at a time. Before you start with the drops, it is very important first to unravel your problem. Look into to the root of the addictive patterns in your thoughts and behaviour. Search for old emotions that have become embedded in your system along the way. It will take some time and practice to get deep enough and find the naked truth under the surface of your behaviour. Once you found the root, or the soil in which your habits are rooted, you are ready to formulate your intention in the form of a positive affirmation.

This affirmation must be exactly the opposite of what you discovered to be the root of your addictions. For example, if you discovered your base problem to be "I feel lonely", a possible affirmation could be "I am complete". An affirmation should not contain "I wish" or "I will" and it should not contain a "not". It should not affirm your current state.

Once you are sure you have located a troublesome emotion and its opposite positive affirmation, stand in front of a mirror and take a single drop under the tongue. Let the bitter, woody taste fully enter your senses and welcome the spirit into your being to do its healing. Do not wash down the drop with water, experiencing the bitterness is an integral part of the healing. Your senses will be immersed with bitterness while you say ‘yes’ to the spirit. Then, look yourself in the eyes, hold one hand on your throat, and express your intention. Firmly, use your voice and feel the vibration come back into your body while you see, hear, and feel yourself speak. The iboga travels into your nervous system, healing exactly the place you point it to.

Imagine the plant teacher simply closing the door to the old, hindering emotion. Remember, the mind has the tendency to make you believe in twisted versions of reality. Those mind-made lies are based on experiences from the past. While speaking your intention out loud, your voice overwrites the lie your mind has been misleading you with. While the thoughts your mind produces are constructed out of the past, the sound of your voice comes from and into the very Now. Sound is so much louder than thoughts. Feel the liberation from your past and the beauty of the Now.

Potentiating and manifesting

Other than this described technique to reset negative behavioural patterns, the tincture can also be used to connect and reconnect to the positive and bring good things in your life. Nothing is more powerful than ones intent he vibration you set before you start your day will definitely impact it.

Start your day in front of the mirror and set the positive vibe. You will experience the result all day. Where your mind would be constantly judging any situation and loop you into its trap of doubt or insecurity, your affirmation has already overwritten all negativity. My favourite affirmation for the day is: “Everything is good”. With this I have already decided that whatever comes that day has my full acceptance and approval, be it good or bad, I am in peace with the day. EVERYTHING is good. No mind-based misconception can go around that.

Examples of positive affirmations

I am complete
Everything is good
I am love
I am my self
Everything is light
I am happy
This day is perfect
I choose
My body is healing itself
Life is generous
I can do it
I am free
I am

Reset the robot

Through your voice, your intention vibrates outwards into the entire universe. It becomes imprinted in the totality of the whole and resonates back to you. The iboga travels with your intention to exactly those receptors that were urging you to fall in repetition of the pattern you want to be freed from. Your intention or positive affirmation will keep those receptors occupied. You are healing yourself, you are no longer caught up in a loop of oppressive or destructive thoughts. You reset the robot inside you, the robot that defines the boundaries of how you think and behave, fed by emotions from the past, negative ideas of others, or media induced images of reality.

After a week’s time, you start to notice the freedom you have gained. You find the willpower to unplug from previous conceptions and discover you are free to make your own decisions. You find fresh soil for the roots of your being to extract new energy from and sunlight to grow towards your full potential.

When eliminating your old habits, it is very possible that other negative patterns come to the surface. After you feel like you have completely cured the problem you were focusing on, you can repeat the treatment with a new intention. This revolutionary technique allows you to work slowly and focus at one problem at a time. In the end, the tincture gives you the potential to surface all that needs to be dealt with and heal all that limits the freedom of your soul.

Warnings

Without an affirmation, the treatment is ineffective. If not used properly, with the wrong intentions, ingestion of the tincture may even cause damage. Make sure you spend enough time to dig into the soil of your emotions and find the roots of your behaviour. Don’t worry, you do not need to be a psychologist to get to these depths. All the knowledge you need lies inside yourself.

Iboga accumulates in the body. It remains in the body for more than 4 weeks. This means that all the drops you take within 5 weeks will accumulate and remain in the body until they slowly wear off. If the dose you take exceeds 10 drops a day, physical and psychological effects, and perhaps even disorientation and ‘trippy’ effects can occur. Be aware of that some people respond highly sensitively to a few drops only. It is important to listen to the signs of your body at all times and adjust your dosage accordingly. Do not take the iboga tincture before going to sleep. The plant gives you energy and might cause insomnia.

During the period you treat yourself with iboga, it is advised not to use any drugs and keep stimulants such as coffee to a minimum, as well as smoking tobacco or certain herbs. Your receptors will become very sensitive and you may have an unexpectedly strong reaction to them. Also, it is strongly discouraged to combine the healing of iboga with ayahuasca or other visionary or hallucinogenic substances. Lastly, iboga should never be combined with anti-depressant medication such as SSRI's, such a combination would be very dangerous.

Iboga Microdosing Guide - Iboga - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus
 
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Microdosing psychedelics

Ben Greenfield Fitness

Breathing carefully, I clutched the Costco special edition family size 1.5-liter glass bottle of vodka and carefully extracted 10 milliliters with a miniature glass pipette, which I then transferred into a small amber glass bottle. Then, with my nine-year-old son’s tiny set of school scissors, I snipped exactly 1/10 of LSD from the blotter square I’d ordered from a psychedelic research chemical supplier website the week prior, with a cloaked browser, of course, so the feds didn’t come knocking at my door. I dropped the LSD into the bottle, gave it a thirty-second shake, then placed the bottle in the pantry, next to my protein powder and creatine. I smiled. Within 24 hours, I’d be ready to sample my first homemade, volumetric “microdose” of a drug reported to increase lateral thinking patterns, improve creativity, massively boost productivity and much, much more.

Microdosing with psilocybin

Psilocybin, AKA “magic mushrooms”, are naturally occurring fungi, with over 180 different species and research from archaeologist evidence has shown that humans have been using psilocybin mushrooms for over 7,000 years. I’ve personally found microdoses of psilocybin, AKA “magic mushrooms”, to be best for nature immersions, hiking, journaling or self-discovery. Psilocybin primarily interacts with the serotonin receptors in the brain and has been used in therapeutic settings to treat disorders such as headaches, anxiety, depression, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorders (See additional studies here, here, here and here). There is limited data to show any adverse drug interactions with the use of psilocybin, and liver function, blood sugar, and hormonal regulation all appear to be unaffected during consumption (although it is best to avoid alcohol and any serotonin-based antidepressants while taking any psychedelics). A microdose of psilocybin is generally between 0.2 grams and .5 grams, and I’d highly recommend you start on the low end of the dosage range with these or any of the psychedelics mentioned here.

Microdosing with LSD

LSD is derived from a chemical in rye fungus. It was originally synthesized in 1938 to aid in childbirth and is widely known for its powerful hallucinogenic effects, but less well known for what I personally use it for: inducing intense sparks of creativity when a merging of the left and right brain hemispheres is the desired goal, such as a day on which I need to do a great deal of creative writing or copywriting. It also works quite well for keeping you “chugging along” on a sleep deprived or jet-lagged day. Similar to psilocybin, LSD affects serotonin levels in the body. By deactivating serotonin mechanisms, brain levels of serotonin are dramatically increased after a dose of LSD, which also causes a “feel good” dopamine release. It is thought that LSD may reduce the blood flow to the control centers of the brain, which weaken their activity, allowing for a heightened brain connection. This enhancement in brain connectivity is most likely why users experience increased creativity and unique thought patterns.

Therapeutic effects of LSD include treating addiction, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cluster headaches, end-of-life anxiety, resistant behavior change, and increase reaction time, concentration, balance, mood, and pain perception (See additional studies here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). A typical microdose of LSD is between 5 and 20 micrograms. My own approach for using LSD is quite simple and is called the “volumetric dosing” method. I purchase a blotter paper of LSD or P-LSD, then cut out 100 micrograms with scissors and drop one square tab into a 10-milliliter dropper bottle of vodka. A single drop of the liquid contains a neat 10 micrograms of LSD, and I don’t risk the inaccurate dosing so notoriously associated with simply cutting out and placing the blotter paper into the mouth. Interestingly, I’ve found that if you take slightly too much LSD, a small dose of CBD (e.g. 10-20 milligrams) seems to knock the edge off.

Microdosing with iboga

Native to the rainforests in Central Africa, Iboga is an evergreen shrub, with high concentrations found in the root bark. It has a rich history amongst practitioners in the indigenous Bwiti religion in Africa and has recently found its way into Western practices, primarily for extremely effective therapy for drug addictions, but also for physical energy, cognitive performance in smaller microdoses, and a surge in positive emotions (See additional studies here and here.). To microdose with Iboga, you will want to find it in tincture or root bark form (the root bark form is typically encapsulated). If using a tincture, find a source that has the root bark extracted into its purest form, combined with Iboga alkaloids, which keeps the full spectrum of the plant untouched. Just a single drop of an Iboga tincture equates to about 0.5 milligrams and suffices as a microdose. For the root bark of Iboga, a dose of 300-500 milligrams is also an effective dose. I’ve personally found Iboga to be most useful prior to a workout or an effort that combines both brain and body demands, such as tennis or basketball – but it makes you hyperactive and jittery if taken prior to a day of desk work. This makes sense when you consider that African tribes traditionally whipped themselves into a frenzied pre-battle state on Iboga.

Microdosing with ketamine

Ketamine is a general anesthetic that is most commonly used on animals but ironically was originally devised for and tested on humans. Users of ketamine have claimed increased compassion and sensitivity to others, an increase in joy of life, and a reduced fear around death. Finding your ideal microdose of ketamine can be tricky, so it is important to start a bit below the recommended doses. Taking ketamine sublingually (under the tongue) is the most effective and direct route of administration, and a sublingual microdose is about .75 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, although you can get a significant mood enhancement with as little as 0.2 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. I’d recommend that you never mix ketamine with any drugs that depress breathing such as alcohol, opioids, and tramadol, as it is an extremely calming agent that can produce a heavy sedative effect if you’re not careful or if you combine it with other sedative-like compounds. I’ve found a microdose of ketamine to be best combined with a trip to a float tank, or any other environment that involves sensory deprivation and introspection.

Of course, before wrapping up this section on psychedelics, I’ll address the topics of where to actually buy the stuff. There are a variety of websites that sell psychedelics, but not all ingredient, chemical or quality sourcing is created equal, nor is there any guarantee that any substance you are purchasing is not laced with undesirable compounds. Heck, I get my psilocybin from a farmer in Wisconsin who is a personal friend, and other ingredients from close acquaintances who have their own sources. I know it may seem unfair, but sometimes sourcing comes down to “who ya know” and doing your own due diligence on that person’s source.

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/ar...te-guide-nootropics-smart-drugs-psychedelics/
 
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Microdosing: Set and Setting

by Nia Davies | The Third Wave | 22 Aug 2020

In our quick-fix culture, there’s a common misconception that microdosing is a magic pill. It’s becoming clear, however, that psychedelic experiences are all about the container – our mindsets, environments, and the process of change itself. This is what ‘set and setting are all about.’

The Thirdwave Microdosing Course is a science-based, step-by-step process for elevating your body, mind and spirit, by harnessing the key pillars of microdosing including information, intention, and integration. Managing your mental mindset and setting up the correct container, are one part of knowing how to maximize the benefits while minimizing the risks of this transformational tool.

Ready, set, go

Psychedelics are amplifiers that work on your current mindset. That’s why it’s important to carefully consider the mental attitude and state that you bring to your session, including thoughts, moods and expectations, which will all influence the outcome of the experience.

If you’re turning to psychedelics to assist with ‘undesirable’ states of mind, this may mean letting go of expectations, and riding the waves without resistance. As well as reminding yourself that the effects are temporary, and that every experience brings with it, its own insights and lessons in the long-run.

Psychedelics have been shown to help people find a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives, as well as increasing adaptability and openness to new experiences. Here are some of the best ways to help you manage your mental mindset:

Active relaxation

It may seem like an oxymoron, but ‘active relaxation’ is something we should all practice more often. If you’ve ever woken up during the night, heart pounding and short of breath, it’s a sign that your autonomic nervous system may be affected by chronic stress.

The autonomic nervous system includes the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. While the sympathetic system is stimulated in the stress response and leads to a ‘fight or flight’ activation of hormones such as adrenaline, the parasympathetic system is involved in ‘rest and digest’, allowing energy to be re-diverted to healing, building tissues, and eliminating waste.

Finding ways to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system more often, through yoga or meditation for instance, is a way to readdress the imbalance. Practices that bring music, movement, breath, meditation and the act of ‘permission to take time out’ together can help us self-regulate and self-manage stress long term, using just the mind, body and mother nature.

Meditation & flow state

Integrating practices and habits, such as meditation, into your daily or weekly schedule synergizes with the effects of microdosing. Neurofeedback is a means of training your brain to enter into more relaxed states at will. Just as you would go to a gym for your physical fitness, training your mind to relax works it just like a muscle.

Mindset, breaking and building habits, resilience and self-awareness are all associated with the flow state and enhanced neuroplasticity, which can be facilitated by the correct application and integration of microdosing techniques.

Our brains produce brain waves, which in normal waking consciousness are in the beta state, and can shift to a more relaxed alpha state, or meditative theta state. Studies show that psychedelic use may help brains shift into the alpha state, which is also seen in the transition to ‘flow state’ – when you are fully absorbed in the task at hand and performing at your best.

Journaling

Writing down your thoughts and feelings over the duration of your course can help you reflect on the microdosing experience. The process of writing itself allows for a stream of consciousness to be released and encourages you to enter into flow state. While intermittently going back and reflecting on past entries can bring new insights, allowing you to pick up on any subtle changes in habits and thought patterns over time.


Talking yourself through emotional challenges via journaling is a great way of re-framing your mindset. For example, stress in and of itself, is not all bad. It can be useful to us and is often necessary when it comes to motivation and achieving flow state. But it’s our response to stress that we must become aware of, with a belief in the notion of stress being a ‘bad thing’, often being worse than the stress itself.

Coaching and integration

Community and social support networks have been shown to be particularly important in integrating psychedelic experiences. With higher doses, there is a natural propensity to want to try to intellectualise or rationalise the experience, which is often not possible. Simply being heard and having the experience validated in this sense, can be deeply healing. As is listening to the experiences of others, and being able to draw parallels.

Coaching draws on nurturing mindset; training in something so fundamental has the ability to reach out and touch all other aspects of our lives. We wouldn’t expect an athlete to compete without professional coaching, and the same could be applied to the business and career arena, or even our relationships, in terms of improving mental fitness.

‘Setting’ it straight: Nurture + Environment

We are creatures of our environment, and studies increasingly show that the mind-body connection does not represent separate psychological and physical processes. Instead, it’s a highly complex interaction between mind (consciousness), genetics, environment and the types of substance being used. Here are some ways to create an optimal setting for your microdosing experience:

Head for nature

When you first start microdosing, you might find yourself stressed by external events beyond your control. Ideally, you’ll want to cultivate the ability to respond to stress with self-compassion and awareness. One good way to do that is by spending time in nature, where you can limit distractions and get used to the sensation of microdosing and its effects on you.

Social settings

Areas of quiet solutide, or natural beauty provide the perfect backdrop for psychedelic use. Similarly, you may wish to trial it in a relaxed social setting with friends. There are many anecdotal reports of microdosing psilocybin being helpful in situations of social anxiety, as it can help you to get out of your head, by feeling more present and at ease.

‘Sound’ theory: Binaural beats

As well as having an influence on your mindset, music and lighting also have more direct impacts on our states. The wave / particle atoms that comprise our being, vibrate at a frequency that we term ‘resonance’. All waveforms produce sound, even if it is out of the reach of what we can audibly detect.

Things that are dense or solid have lower frequencies than those that are liquid or soft, so bones and teeth have a lower frequency than organs and tissues. Our emotions and thoughts on the other hand, vibrate at an even higher frequency than our physical body. This has been scientifically measured using an electroencephalogram (EEG).

Practices like overtone chanting, mantra, icaros, gongs, drumming, prayers and crystal bowls have been used for thousands of years and today’s science is starting to understand how and why this benefits health. For example, it’s believed that one of the benefits of chanting, is that the vibration stimulates the vagus nerve, which is involved in parasympathetic nervous system activation and active relaxation.

Work by scientists such as Candace Pert has looked into the impact that sound can have on our autonomic, immune and endocrine systems, as well as the neuropeptides in our brain. Typically when we think of music, we think only of the emotional or psychological effect on our thoughts and feelings. However, it also affects our nervous system at different levels of awareness (psychoacoustics). At the mundane level, we hear sounds around us without giving them much consideration. However, they can also cause our brain waves to slow down or speed up.

In the 70s, biophysicist Gerald Oster showed that when a tone is played in one ear and a slightly different tone is played in the other, the brain creates a third internal tone called a binaural beat. The theory is that this syncs the waves in both hemispheres – entrainment shifts our brainwave state by changing the rhythm and frequency of the brainwave patterns.

This is why during a sound healing session, the normal waking (beta) state can shift to relaxed (alpha) state, or meditative (theta) state. Some people experience a type of conscious sleep, where they are self-aware not in the physical sense, but in a more general sense. This can bring up some interesting mental images from the subconscious and was a favorite trick of artists like Salvador Dali – who would balance a spoon that would drop just as he was drifting off, and try to recall the images evoked before jolting awake.

Others may fall into a deep (delta) sleep where they are not aware of the physical body or mental images. Healing and reprogramming is optimal in the theta and delta state, where it is impossible to be stressed or agitated and one is highly suggestible. You can also download ‘binaural beats’ which are designed to help put your brainwaves into these states, reproducing the effects of meditation.

‘Lighting’ the way: LEDs

Cells communicate through their own language of chemical signals. Different compounds such as hormones and neurotransmitters act like commands and phrases, giving cells information about the surrounding environment, or creating a cascade of chain reactions.

Also known as Biophoton communication, cells can talk using light frequencies, and although still poorly understood, a growing body of evidence suggests that the molecular machinery of life both emits and absorbs photons.

In keeping with the theme of heading for nature, natural lighting is usually preferable for mood and mindset over the harsh glare of an artificially lit office cubicle. However, some people also like to use certain LED devices, which are designed to act on similar principles to those applied in Binaural Beats.

The idea is that LEDs flicker at specific frequencies to entrain the user’s brain waves into a range of trance states. Training to actively relax in this way is also akin to neurofeedback and works the brain like a muscle.

What’s next?

While ‘set and setting’ are two key pillars of microdosing, they are by no means comprehensive. Microdosing is arguably part science and part art form, and Third Wave’s microdosing course is one of the most scientifically rigorous, comprehensive, and supportive guides available online (if we do say so ourselves).

Whether you have some background knowledge or are a complete novice, they provide everything you need to know about integrating microdosing into your life, to optimise for personal and professional transformation.

One of the most unique benefits is access to the exclusive members-only online community, where many great relationships, collaborations and experiences have been fostered. It also provides the personalisation needed to make a good experience great, as you’ll be able to pose questions to a team of experts, as well as other experienced community members.

To learn more, check out our comprehensive microdosing guides.

 
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New scientific study shows microdosing LSD elevates mood and cognition

by David Pescovitz | 20 Oct 2020

Neuropsychologists at The Netherlands' Maastricht University and their colleagues report that microdoses of LSD can increase mood and cognition. In their double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 24 participants, the researchers administered doses of 0-20 micrograms of LSD. A typical full trip dose of LSD is around 100mcg. From their scientific paper in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology:​
The main objective of the present dose-finding study was to determine the minimal dose of LSD needed to affect mood and cognition. A placebo-controlled within-subject study including 24 healthy participants, was conducted to assess the acute effects of three LSD doses (5, 10, and 20 mcg) on measures of cognition, mood, and subjective experience, up until 6 h after administration. Cognition and subjective experience were assessed using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task, Digit Symbol Substitution Test, Cognitive Control Task, Profile of Mood States, and 5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness rating scale. LSD showed positive effects in the majority of observations by increasing positive mood (20 mcg), friendliness (5, 20 mcg), arousal (5 mcg), and decreasing attentional lapses (5, 20 mcg). Negative effects manifested as an increase in confusion (20 mcg) and anxiety (5, 20 mcg). Psychedelic-induced changes in waking consciousness were also present (10, 20 mcg). Overall, the present study demonstrated selective, beneficial effects of low doses of LSD on mood and cognition in the majority of observations.​
 
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79% of those who microdose report improvements in their mental health*

by Beth Ellwood | PsyPost | 28 Oct 2020

A study published in Psychopharmacology suggests that people may turn to microdosing with psychedelics in an attempt to improve their mental health. According to most self-reports, these attempts may be effective.

Interest in psychedelic drugs as a potential treatment option for mental health disorders has been steadily increasing. One reason for the upsurge in interest might be the lack of effective treatments for certain psychiatric disorders, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Study authors Toby Lea and his team were motivated to examine a particular gap in the research by focusing on something called “microdosing”. The practice of microdosing refers to the consumption of very small, routine doses of a psychedelic drug, such as LSD or psilocybin, for reasons other than achieving hallucinogenic side effects.

“To date, most quantitative microdosing studies have excluded people with a history of mental illness, have not reported microdosing motivations, and no study has examined the sociodemographic and other correlates of microdosing as mental health and substance use therapies, nor the sociodemographic and other correlates of perceived improvements in mental health that people attribute to microdosing,” Lea and colleagues say.

An international, online survey questioned 1,102 individuals who were either currently microdosing, or had tried microdosing in the past. The average age of respondents was 33, and 57 percent had at some point been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

When questioned about their motivations for microdosing, 39 percent indicated that improving their mental health was their main motivation. Of these, 21 percent were microdosing to improve their depression, 7 percent for their anxiety, 9 percent for other mental disorders including PTSD, and 2 percent for drug or alcohol use.

Importantly, 85 percent of those practicing microdosing to improve their mental health had previously received either medication or counselling therapy. Moreover, among those who had received prescriptions for medication, “half (51 percent) reported having ceased antidepressants and 40 percent reported having ceased other psychiatric medications.” This suggests that respondents may have been microdosing as a way to replace traditional forms of therapy.

“Respondents who had been microdosing for a longer duration were also more likely to be motivated to microdose for mental health. This may suggest that microdosing is working for these people, and that they are continuing to microdose as an ongoing therapy to replace or supplement psychiatric medications, some with the knowledge of their doctor and/or psychotherapist,” Lea and associates note.

The results indicated that, at least from the perspective of respondents, the practice of microdosing elicited positive mental health effects. As the researchers report, “Forty-four percent of all respondents perceived that their mental health was much better and 36 percent perceived that it was somewhat better because of microdosing. Nineteen percent of respondents perceived no changes to their mental health.”

Lea and colleagues acknowledge that several key limitations limit the inferences from their findings. It is not possible to discern from their study whether the reported mental health improvements were due to microdosing, or rather the result of a placebo effect or other factors like lifestyle changes.

The authors stress the importance of continued study into the effects of microdosing. “While we await the findings of clinical trials, which could take some years, people will continue to self-manage their health with microdosing. It is therefore important to monitor people’s microdosing practices and experiences in the long term in order to provide appropriate harm reduction resources and other support.”

The study, “Perceived outcomes of psychedelic microdosing as self-managed therapies for mental and substance use disorders”, was authored by Toby Lea, Nicole Amada, Henrik Jungaberle, Henrike Schecke, Norbert Scherbaum, and Michael Klein.

*From the article here:
 
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