Could microdosing psilocybin result in greater improvements in mood and mental health outcomes?

After the Global Drug Survey reported last year that microdosing of psychedelics for mental health has increased since the start of the pandemic, researchers have acknowledged the fact that ‘public uptake of microdosing has outpaced evidence’ in a new study on the effects of psilocybin on a microdosing level.

Written by Bryony Porteous-Sebouhian

Emerging from an age of ‘colonial suppression’

After decades of supressing the possible positive effects and uses of psychedelic psychoactive substances, restrictions are lifting and researchers across the globe are investigating the possible life-changing uses of psychedelics for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Much of the recent research has been focused on how psychedelics such as psilocybin (also known as ‘magic mushrooms’) can dramatically alter people’s perceptions, states of consciousness and self-perception as a way to ‘re-wire’ neural pathways that can lead to conditions such as treatment resistant depression.

However, less research has been conducted on the use of microdosing as a means to treat mental health conditions, especially in the long-term.

Microdosing refers to the practice of regular ‘self-administration’ of small doses of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin. The aim with microdosing, is to experience some of the ‘lighter’ mood altering effects, without experiencing impairment of cognitive functioning.

Now, a study recently published in Nature journal by a research team spanning across institutes and universities in Canada, America and The Netherlands has focused specifically on microdosing psilocybin and looked to ‘solve’ the past problem of a placebo control group in this kind of setting.

What researchers found out about microdosing psilocybin and how it compared to a control group

The study states that it is currently ‘the largest prospective study to date of microdosing psilocybin’. It also correlates factors such as age, and how microdosing affects mental health.

Participants in the study were asked: “Do you currently have any psychological, mental health or addiction concerns?” and were also assessed on mood (via the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, self-report measure), depression, anxiety and stress (via the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21). All assessments were given at the start if the study and then 22-35 days later.

In relation to mood and mental health, age was also analysed as a possible contributing factor to the effectiveness of microdosed psilocybin.

Data was collected between November 2019 and May 2021, with participants being drawn from a larger study. The chosen sample of participants also overlapped with a much larger sample identified in an earlier study that researchers used to inform them. All participants were aged 18 or older.

Researchers found that those participants who had microdosed, in comparison to non-microdosers, showed greater improvements across depression, anxiety and stress, in self-reported assessments. Researchers also found that sustained improvement in severity of depressive symptoms was stronger among female participants than among male participants.

Microdosing was found to be just as effective among those with no mental health concerns at the start of the study as those who entered the study with concerns about their mental health.

In regards to overall mood, the findings mirrored those associated with depression, anxiety and stress specifically. All participants who had taken microdoses of psilocybin experienced a decrease in negative mood over the duration of the study.

Age appeared to have no impact on the effectiveness of microdosing psilocybin for mood or mental health, only when looking at cognitive tasks and impairment was a difference noticed by researchers.

What does this mean for the future of psychedelics in psychiatry and psychopharmacology?

Most notably, authors on the study have said:

“The subgroup of respondents who reported mental health concerns at the time of the baseline assessment exhibited an average reduction in depressive symptoms that resulted in a change from moderate to mild depression following approximately 30 days of microdosing psychedelics.”

The authors have said this is a vital contribution to the already existing evidence that suggests psychedelics (with or without therapy) are an untapped resource when looking at the “tremendous health costs and ubiquity of depression”.

The authors also pointed out the “sizable proportion of patients who do not respond to extant treatments”, such as SSRIs and other antidepressants that this treatment could benefit.

However, they do acknowledge that their findings point to “the need for further research to more firmly establish the nature of the relationship between microdosing, mood and mental health”, and to rule out any other possible factors and isolate the psilocybin as the sole attributable factor.

As pointed out in the published study, these promising findings could pivot psychedelic research more toward microdosing as means of utilising these substances most effectively, where past research has focused more on the potential of extreme psychedelic experiences, in partnership with psychotherapy.

Could this be a more sustainable way to integrate psychedelics into pharmacological treatment for common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression?