Microdosing Psychedelics: Subjective Benefits and Challenges, Substance Testing Behavior, and the Relevance of Intention
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Journal of Psychopharmacology Microdosing Psychedelics: Subjective Benefits and Challenges, Substance Testing Behavior, and the Relevance of Intention Journal: Journal of Psychopharmacology Manuscript ID JOP-2020-4187 Manuscript Type:ForOriginal Peer Paper Review Date Submitted by the 26-Feb-2020 Author: Complete List of Authors: Petranker, Rotem; York University, Psychology Anderson, Thomas; University of Toronto, Psychology Maier, Larissa; University of California San Francisco, Psychiatry Barratt, Monica; RMIT University, Social and Global Studies Centre Ferris, Jason; The University of Queensland, Centre for Health Services Research Winstock, Adam; SLAM NHS TRust , Addictions ; Please list at least 3 keywords which relate to your Microdosing, Psychedelics, Psilocybin, LSD manuscript:: Background: Microdosing psychedelics – the practice of taking small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of substances like LSD or psilocybin-containing mushrooms – is becoming increasingly popular. Despite its surging popularity, little is known about the effects of this practice. Aims: This research had two main aims. First, we attempted to replicate previous findings in the literature regarding the subjective benefits and challenges reported for microdosing. Second, we measured whether people who microdose test their substances for purity before consumption and whether having an approach-intention to microdosing was predictive of more reported benefits. Methods: The Global Drug Survey (GDS) runs the world’s largest drug survey. Participants responding to GDS2019 who reported last year use of LSD or psilocybin were offered the opportunity to answer a specialist Abstract: sub-section on microdosing. Results: Data from 6,753 people who reported microdosing at least once in the last 12 months were used for analyses. Our results suggest a partial replication of previous benefits and challenges with the present sample often reporting enhanced mood, creativity, focus, and sociability. Against our prediction and quite remarkably, the most common challenge participants associated with microdosing was “none”. As predicted, most participants reported not testing their substances. Counter to our hypothesis, approach-intention predicted less rather than more benefits when microdosing . We discuss alternate theoretical frameworks that may better capture the reasons people microdose. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the benefits associated with microdosing greatly outweigh the challenges. Microdosing may have http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Page 1 of 36 Journal of Psychopharmacology 1 2 3 utility for a variety of uses while having minimal side-effects. However, 4 double-blind, placebo-controlled experiments are still required in order to 5 substantiate these reports. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 For Peer Review 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Journal of Psychopharmacology Page 2 of 36 1 2 3 Microdosing Psychedelics: Subjective Benefits and Challenges, Substance Testing Behavior, and the 4 5 6 Relevance of Intention 7 8 Petranker, R.1,2, Anderson, T.2,3, Maier, L. J.4,5, Barratt, M. J.6,7, Ferris, J. A.8, & Winstock, A. R.9,10 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 Clinical Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada 15 16 17 2 Psychedelic Studies Research Program, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada 18 19 For Peer Review 20 3 Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. 21 22 23 4 Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, 24 25 CA, United States 26 27 28 5 Early Postdoc Mobility Grantee (P2ZHP1_17812), Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern, Switzerland 29 30 31 6 Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Australia 32 33 34 7 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia 35 36 37 8 Centre for Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 38 39 Australia 40 41 42 9 University College London, Gower St, Bloomsbury, London, UK 43 44 45 10 Global Drug Survey Ltd, London, UK 46 47 48 *Corresponding Author 49 50 51 Rotem Petranker 52 53 54 Email: [email protected] 55 56 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Page 3 of 36 Journal of Psychopharmacology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 For Peer Review 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Journal of Psychopharmacology Page 4 of 36 RUNNING HEADER: MICRODOSING OUTCOMES, DRUG TESTING, AND INTENTIONS 1 2 3 Microdosing Psychedelics: Subjective Benefits and Challenges, Substance Testing Behavior, and 4 5 the Relevance of Intention 6 7 8 Petranker, R.1,2, Anderson, T.2,3, Maier, L. J.4,5, Barratt, M. J.6,7, Ferris, J. A.8, & Winstock, A. R.9,10 9 10 11 12 13 1 14 Clinical Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada 15 16 2 Psychedelic Studies Research Program, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada 17 18 19 3 Department of Psychology,For University Peer of Toronto, Toronto,Review ON, Canada. 20 21 22 4 Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, 23 24 CA, United States 25 26 27 5 Early Postdoc Mobility Grantee (P2ZHP1_17812), Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern, 28 29 Switzerland 30 31 6 32 Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University, Australia 33 34 7 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia 35 36 37 8 Centre for Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 38 39 Australia 40 41 42 9 University College London, Gower St, Bloomsbury, London, UK 43 44 45 10 Global Drug Survey Ltd, London, UK 46 47 48 *Corresponding Author 49 50 Rotem Petranker 51 52 53 Toronto, ON, Canada 54 55 56 Email: [email protected] 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Page 5 of 36 Journal of Psychopharmacology MICRODOSING OUTCOMES, DRUG TESTING, AND INTENTIONS 1 2 3 Abstract 4 5 6 Background: Microdosing psychedelics – the practice of taking small, sub-hallucinogenic doses 7 8 of substances like LSD or psilocybin-containing mushrooms – is becoming increasingly popular. Despite 9 10 its surging popularity, little is known about the effects of this practice. 11 12 13 Aims: This research had three main aims. First, we attempted to replicate previous findings 14 15 regarding the subjective benefits and challenges reported for microdosing. Second, we assessed whether 16 17 people who microdose test their substances for purity before consumption. Third, we examined whether 18 19 having an approach-intentionFor to microdosing Peer was predictive Review of more reported benefits. 20 21 22 Methods: The Global Drug Survey (GDS) runs the world’s largest drug survey. Participants who 23 24 reported last year use of LSD or psilocybin in GDS2019 were offered the opportunity to answer a sub- 25 26 section on microdosing. 27 28 29 Results: Data from 6,753 people who reported microdosing at least once in the last 12 months 30 31 were used for analyses. Our results suggest a partial replication of previously reported benefits and 32 33 challenges among the present sample often reporting enhanced mood, creativity, focus, and sociability. 34 35 Counter to our prediction, the most common challenge participants associated with microdosing was 36 37 “none”. As predicted, most participants reported not testing their substances. Counter to our hypothesis, 38 39 40 approach-intention – microdosing in order to approach a desired goal – predicted less rather than more 41 42 benefits when microdosing. We discuss alternate theoretical frameworks that may better capture the 43 44 reasons people microdose. 45 46 47 Conclusion: Our results suggest that the benefits associated with microdosing greatly outweigh 48 49 the challenges. Microdosing may have utility for a variety of uses while having minimal side-effects. 50 51 However, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiments are still required in order to substantiate these 52 53 reports. 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Journal of Psychopharmacology Page 6 of 36 MICRODOSING OUTCOMES, DRUG TESTING, AND INTENTIONS 1 2 3 Declaration of funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the 4 5 public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 For Peer Review 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jop Page 7 of 36 Journal of Psychopharmacology MICRODOSING OUTCOMES, DRUG TESTING, AND INTENTIONS 1 2 3 Introduction 4 5 6 Recent years have seen a groundswell of interest in psychedelics (Pollan, 2018; Waldman, 2017). 7 8 Evidence is mounting that large doses of substances such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and 9 10 psilocybin-containing “magic” mushrooms can help treat depression (Ross et al., 2016), anxiety (Grob et 11 12 al., 2011), and substance use (Johnson et al., 2014). The popularity of microdosing – consuming small, 13 14 sub-hallucinogenic amounts of psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin – has also been rising in recent 15 16 17 years, with online forums such as reddit /r/microdosing growing exponentially (Anderson, Petranker, 18 19 Rosenbaum, et al., 2019). MicrodosingFor Peer has been anecdotally Review proposed as an alternative to antidepressants 20 21 (Weiss, 2019) as well as a performance-enhancing supplement (Plante, 2017).