Why The Micro-Dosing Benefits Could Only Be A Placebo Effect

A recently published UK-based research suggests that the effects of micro-dosing on LSD or psilocybin might just be an illusion

Recently I conducted one of my longest interviews on psychedelics. I spoke extensively with a bloke named Brady Hartsfield about his recent experience with micro-dosing on LSD. Our conversation was mainly focused on the day-to-day benefits of the psychedelic and its positive (and negative) effects on one’s body and mind:

“The thing is that every person should weight in the risk and the reward, and the pros and cons. The mindset you go in with is extremely important.”

For the three weeks that Brady had been taking the LSD micro-doses he didn’t feel any major changes, apart from a slight increase in productivity and general improvement of mood and well-being. He wished to note, however, that it hadn’t harmed his body in any apparent way, at least physically.

Microdosing might have been around for quite a while now, however, it was not until some years ago, in the Silicon Valley, that it had become renowned for its beneficial effects. It’s mainly been known to increase workers’ productivity levels and improved focus during long and highly intensive working days and weeks. “Life hack du jour” is how people first began to describe the trend in the Valley.

No wonder Bill Gates and Steve Jobs also used to microdose — stress and pressure surrounding the highly-paced working place has been reported to get the best off some workers, making hallucinogens the only way out of the loop. Dr James Fadiman, a scientist that has been researching hallucinogens for the past 60 years and the author of the book The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, said:

“What you get is the best parts of Adderall with none of the side effects. You function better physically and mentally.”

It’s also important to explore the other side of the coin, i.e. the arguments that the micro-dosing rise in the West might mainly be just one big fuss and an intelligent marketing strategy to promote the widespread usage of hallucinogens and their legalization across the USA. But let’s not get bogged down with speculations. It’s a fact that the practice of micro-dosing has become increasingly popular among the psychedelics community in the past couple of years.

With today’s ever-increasing levels of stress in the workplace, well-being is slowly becoming a number one priority for most of us, and psychedelics are known to offer just that. The big question, however, for most of the people that are interested in this is, “Does this really work?”

As Brady suggested in the interview — in order to embark on a micro-dosing journey, one should be extensively informed on how each psychedelic works and its potential side effects. The physical and mental condition of the user prior to the first dosage should also be taken into high consideration.

Real Effects or Just a Placebo?

A recent research, published in the journal eLife, conducted by a team in the Centre for Psychedelic Research within the Imperial College of London, suggests that the anecdotal reports of how micro-dosing helps with improving well-being and boosting productivity may well be ‘potentially biased by the placebo effect.’

The researchers at the Centre conducted a so-called self-blinded placebo control study. Usually, a ‘placebo control’ study is conducted in the following way: two groups of participants are being compared — the first group is given actual hallucinogenic pills, whereas the second group is given inactive pills, i.e. placebos. The thing is that neither of these groups is aware of the pills that are being consumed, be that real or placebo.

The volunteers were self-blinded, meaning that they were given doses into non-transparent capsules with QR codes (so that the researchers could recognize which pill was which). The thing was that each participant didn’t know whether she/he was taking a psychedelic or a placebo, rather the whole group was informed who took what at the end of the trial. Nearly 200 individuals participated in the study for an overall span of 4 weeks.

The findings were quite intriguing — the actual psychedelic pills did improve the well-being and life satisfaction of the participants who took them, however, the placebo pills did the exact same thing to its users. The psychological benefits for both of the groups had increased significantly after the end of the 4 weeks period compared to the baseline at the start of the study, and no remarkable differences were found.

According to Balazs Szigeti — a leading researcher in the study — the thing that made him most convinced that the placebo was working was what happened when researchers asked the volunteers if they thought they were being given an actual drug or just a placebo pill.

Participants scored better results on self-reported psychological and mental outcomes when they thought they had taken a microdose — regardless of whether that was actually the case or not. “What is driving the differences in the data is not what you have taken, but what you think you have taken.”

This theory may further be enhanced by a study, conducted by L.S. Kartner and his colleagues at the Division of Psychiatry in the Imperial College of London, argued that initial positive expectations tend to improve mental-health outcomes linked to micro-dosing. Here, the participants were 81 who completed that primary study endpoint. Indeed, after a four-week test period, the volunteers did report improved psychological well-being, emotional stability, and anxiety reduction.

According to the final findings, the positive expectancy scores that were taken at the beginning of the research predicted “subsequent improvements in well-being, suggestive of a significant placebo response.” This means that there is indeed an obvious strong connection between initial positive expectations about what the hallucinogen could bring and the actual benefits reported at the end.

What This All Means

In recent years the practice of micro-dosing has widely been spoken of by its users. The ever-increasing demand for these sub-hallucinogenic doses might also be a result of the growing overall “fame” of the psychedelic industry. Numerous celebrities, including Joe Rogan and Sting, have also had a huge impact on the drugs’ popularity, due to the constant endorsement of the substances’ benefits on one’s mental health.

The hype generated from all the interviews, podcasts, and videos, could have possibly affected future micro-dosers in a way that prior to taking each pill, there would inevitably be an expectation for a positive future end-result. Although the authors of the study argued that their results are “representative of ‘real-life micro-dosing,’” it would not be wise to immediately jump to the conclusion that placebo is the primary force behind the hallucinogens’ effects, as substantially more data is needed to support these bold claims.

Thank you for taking some time to read my article! If you wish to explore more written by me, please check my Medium page:

If you are further interested in psychedelics and mental-health, I recently wrote about whether smoking can damage your brain cells, and how psychedelics could become the “new weed.”