Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers

Microdosing: using psychedelic substances at doses too small to elicit a noticable response.

Reported microdoses identified in observational research typically range from 5 to 20 μg of LSD and from 0.1 to 0.3 g of dried psilocybin mushrooms9,12,13,14,15. Microdoses are most commonly used several times a week with various patterns of alternating days9,10,12,13,14,15,16,17. The lone study to compare microdosing frequency across LSD and psilocybin users reported equivalent use patterns across substances but did not examine differences in relative dosage13.

Mental health or substance use concerns were reported by 29% of respondents, with the most frequently endorsed being anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)/trauma-related symptoms, followed by tobacco addiction, problematic cannabis use, problematic alcohol use and panic attacks (Table 2). Less frequently endorsed concerns included bipolar disorder (2%, n = 161), eating disorder (2%, n = 181), opioid addiction (1%, n = 74) and schizophrenia (< 1%, n = 18). The sample evinced relatively high levels of substance use with 78% (n = 6760) reporting past year cannabis use.

Psilocybin was most highly endorsed as the primary microdosing substance; over 85% of respondents reporting use of psilocybin compared to approximately 11% reporting LSD (Table 4).

Often psylocybin is combined with lions mane mushrooms and possibly chocolate and niacin.

Improved cognitive performance, reductions in stress, anxiety and depression.