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Self-blinding citizen science to explore psychedelic microdosing
Open accessAbstract
Microdosing is the practice of regularly using low doses of psychedelic drugs. Anecdotal reports suggest that microdosing enhances well-being and cognition; however, such accounts are potentially biased by the placebo effect. This study used a 'self-blinding' citizen science initiative, where participants were given online instructions on how to incorporate placebo control into their microdosing routine without clinical supervision. The study was completed by 191 participants, making it the largest placebo-controlled trial on psychedelics to-date. All psychological outcomes improved significantly from baseline to after the 4 weeks long dose period for the microdose group; however, the placebo group also improved and no significant between-groups differences were observed. Acute (emotional state, drug intensity, mood, energy, and creativity) and post-acute (anxiety) scales showed small, but significant microdose vs. placebo differences; however, these results can be explained by participants breaking blind. The findings suggest that anecdotal benefits of microdosing can be explained by the placebo effect.
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“Szigeti et al. (2021) and Marschall et al. (2021) found no differences in anxiety between microdosing and placebo groups.”
From Psychedelic Microdosing, Mindfulness, and Anxiety: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Study (2023) · cites this paper as Szigeti et al. (2021)
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“therapeutic benefit of low doses of psychedelics remains to be demonstrated in a well-controlled clinical study”
From Psychedelics and Other Psychoplastogens for Treating Mental Illness. (2021) · cites this paper as [244]
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“the data on human psychedelic microdosing are equivocal”
From Psychedelics and Other Psychoplastogens for Treating Mental Illness. (2021) · cites this paper as [244]
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“and another prospective study investigating a general population sample could not attribute changes to MD solely (18).”
From Trait mindfulness and personality characteristics in a microdosing ADHD sample: a naturalistic prospective survey study (2023) · cites this paper as [18]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Szigeti, B., Kartner, L., Blemings, A., Rosas, F., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J., Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Erritzoe, D.
- Affiliations
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
- Beckley Foundation (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Szigeti, Balázs
- Venue
- eLife
- Publisher
- eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
- Published
- 2021-03-02
- Volume
- 10
- ISSN
- 2050-084X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7925122
- OpenAlex
- W3134377893
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 22
- FWCI
- 23.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Sussex Research Online (University of Sussex) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (ACF-2013-21-501, CL-2017-21-004)
- Academy of Medical Sciences (SGL019\1063)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Pain Management and Placebo Effect
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Keywords
- psychedelic microdosing, placebo effect, citizen science, subjective well-being, mood, anxiety, creativity, emotional state
- MeSH terms
- Citizen Science, Adult, Affect, Cognition, Creativity, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Emotions, Female, Hallucinogens, Humans, Male, Placebo Effect
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