WHY PEOPLE MICRODOSE MAGIC MUSHROOMS AND LSD FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND WHAT SCIENCE SAYS
People who take tiny amounts of psilocybin mushrooms or LSD say they do so to try to reduce anxiety, stress and depression. Does it work?
Microdosing is gaining popularity with a new breed of health-seekers.
These self-experimenters take a very small amount of psilocybin mushrooms or LSD to try to reduce anxiety, stress and depression.
Some claim the practice gives them access to joy, creativity and connection they cannot get otherwise.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
This is not a full-blown acid trip - or even close. If you see visions, it is not a microdose.
People who microdose do not do it every day. Instead, they take tiny doses intermittently, on a schedule or when they feel it could be beneficial.
One small study suggests any psychological benefits come from users' expectations - the placebo effect. But the science is still new and research is ongoing.
The substances are illegal in most places, including in Hong Kong, but the wave of scientific research focused on the benefits of supervised hallucinatory experiences has spurred the US states of Oregon and Colorado to legalise psychedelic therapy.
Further opening the door to microdosing, a handful of cities have officially directed police to make psychedelics a low priority for enforcement.
"I started microdosing and within a couple of months, I had a general sense of well-being that I hadn't had in so long," says Matt Metzger, a United States Marine Corps veteran.
He grows his own mushrooms in Olympia, in the US state of Washington, where psilocybin has been decriminalised. Taking small amounts of psilocybin helps him cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, he says.
In Loveland, Colorado, Aubrie Gates said microdosing psilocybin has made her a better parent and enhanced her creativity.
"It makes you feel viscerally in your body a new way of being, a more healthy way of being," Gates says.
"And so instead of just like thinking with your conscious mind, 'Oh, I need to be more present,' you feel what it feels like to be more present."
These kinds of claims are hard to measure in the lab, say scientists studying microdosing.
For starters, belief is so important to the experience that empty capsules can produce the same effects.
In one study involving people who microdose, participants did not know until afterward whether they had spent four weeks taking their usual microdose or placebos.
Psychological measures improved after four weeks for everyone in the study, regardless of whether they were taking microdoses or empty capsules.
"It appears that I was indeed taking placebos throughout the trial. I'm quite astonished," wrote one of the study participants.
"It seems I was able to generate a powerful 'altered consciousness' experience based only [on] the expectation around the possibility of a microdose."
Scientists have not found lasting effects on creativity or cognition, according to a review of a handful of small placebo-controlled trials of microdosing LSD.
One small study did find glimmers of an effect of small LSD doses on vigour and elation in people with mild depression when compared with a placebo.
"It may only work in some people and not in other people, so it makes it hard for us to measure it under laboratory conditions," says University of Chicago neuroscience researcher Harriet de Wit, who led the research.
The potential has spurred an Australian company to conduct early trials of microdoses of LSD for severe depression and in cancer patients experiencing despair.
Meanwhile, few rigorous studies of psilocybin microdosing have been done.
Psilocybin mushrooms are the most often used among psychedelic drugs, according to a report by Rand, a non-partisan research group. Rand estimates that 8 million people in the US used psilocybin in 2023 and half of them reported microdosing the last time they used it.
Even microdosing advocates caution that the long-term effects have not been studied in humans.
Other warnings: unregulated products from shady sources could contain harmful substances. And accidentally taking too much could cause disturbing sensations.
California-based non-profit organisation Fireside Project offers free phone support in the US for people to call during a psychedelic experience if they need to. It has received hundreds of calls about microdosing.
"People may call just to simply process their experience," says project founder Josh White, who microdoses the plant iboga and LSD to "continue to deepen the insight about my life" that he gained in a full-blown psychedelic experience.
Balazs Szigeti of the University of California San Francisco, who has studied microdosing, says it may be a way to harness the placebo effect for personal benefit.
"It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy," Szigeti says. "People who are interested in microdosing should give microdosing a try, but only if they're enthusiastic about it, if they have a positive expectation about the benefits of microdosing."
Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.
More Articles from SCMP
Chinese scholars take on Trump adviser pushing tariff war as prelude to financial revamp
Chinese tech giants race to expand AI services market with latest open-standard protocol
China’s yuan sees payment popularity rise amid ‘soaring volatility’ in US Treasury market
Ready for your next ski trip? How Hongkongers can stay safe on the slopes
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
2025-04-21T20:39:08Z
