It’s no secret that hallucinogens can have some pretty intense effects.

That’s why some people like them. But aside from visions of purple elephants, some people who take these drugs also report other desirable effects too, like reduced anxiety or better focus.

Which is why some people t ake small amounts of these drugs i n an attempt to experience those benefits without going on a full trip. and it’s becoming more popular with recreational drug users. But does it actually work? In 2024, we’re still in the wild  west of microdosing research, without much in terms of  medically approved history or controlled studies to work with.

But researchers are starting to do experiments that help us understand what a microdose could actually do. And it looks like at least some of the time, that microdose can have macro effects. So when it comes to these drugs, here’s what we know about the “less is more” approach. [intro music] First off, a disclaimer: many of the commonly microdosed drugs are illegal in much of the world.

If you’re taking illegal and unregulated drugs, you can’t be confident of your dose or even of the substance itself. So SciShow does not advocate for DIYing your microdoses. Now, on to the science!

A microdose is exactly what it sounds like: a really small amount of something. I guess technically you could have a microdose of anything. Like, you could rip a corner off a slice of cheese and call it a micro-cheese.

But for the purposes of this video, I’m mainly talking about hallucinogenic drugs. And if you’re hallucinating after you eat cheese, it may be time to see a doctor. The most popular substances to microdose are drugs like LSD and psilocybin, which, in addition to causing some hallucinations or changes in perception like synesthesia, tend to give users a feeling  of euphoria, mysticism, and general relaxation.

On a good trip, anyway. The idea behind taking a microdose of these drugs is that a small enough portion won’t send you into the stratosphere, but might offer some of the  mood-altering side effects. And by small enough, I mean usually somewhere between a tenth and a twentieth of a recreational dose, taken every few days.

Now, here’s where I’m going to give a big ol’ caveat. Most of the research looking at microdosing comes from surveys, self-reports, or really small clinical tests. And some of these self-reports are very informal.

We even found one study where the researchers collected all their data from YouTube videos and comments. So we can talk about the results of these studies, but even the authors of these publications warn that we can’t extrapolate too much from any one self-report paper. To be clear, these studies can be really important in the research process.

Yes, even when they came from YouTube comments. Self-reported experiences in a casual environment let people give an honest and unfiltered account of what they’ve felt. But in a perfect world, those papers would be complemented by experimental data, which is a bit lacking right now.

With that in mind, here’s what we know. Most people who microdose say they’re doing it to improve their cognition, mood, or health. And that’s a lot to get done on one little dose!

So when it comes to the science of whether microdosing really works or not, part of that answer depends on what that person’s trying to accomplish. One misconception about microdosing is that the doses are so small that users won’t ever feel any different at all. A number of studies have found that many people do notice a change, whether it’s something like feeling super aware of everything that they touch or unwanted psychedelic effects.

But not all of the participants  had those responses, and the degree of those effects definitely varied. So that just means that microdoses are not inherently so small that a person won’t feel anything, which is what researchers call a “sub-perceptual” dose. Meaning that microdosers might still get a little high, but they also might get the benefits they were hoping for.

So let’s get into what those might be. First off, the research we have so far suggests that microdosing could help with clinical depression symptoms. Most studies report mood improvements, including a decrease in feelings of depression.

It’s awesome that such a small amount of anything could have a significant effect that genuinely makes a person’s life better. But it’s not going to do that 100% of the time. In all of those studies, the trend was a decrease in depression, but that trend was driven by something like 70% of participants.

Which means that microdosing didn’t work for the other 30%. Even with the small number  of publications out there, there’s at least one study that reports no change in depression, and another study that showed that people who microdosed were more depressed than people who didn’t. Now, in that last study, people who microdosed scored higher for measures of depression than people who didn’t.

But we don’t know if it’s the microdosing that caused them to get more depressed or if they were already more depressed beforehand. And people are interested in microdosing as a treatment for more than just depression. When it comes to stress and anxiety, the effects of microdosing are kind of a mixed bag.

About half of the microdosing studies report decreased stress and anxiety, but another third of them show the opposite. And sometimes you can find both of those effects in the same study. So it’s still not clear whether microdosing is capable of helping with those particular conditions.

Aside from treating mental health problems, microdosing is also gaining popularity as a productivity hack, especially among Silicon Valley types. Their goal might be to  increase their attention span to focus on work for longer, and from what we know so far, microdosing may actually help with that. Most of the surveys have found that participants’ focus and attention improved when microdosing, although some experiments showed no change or even reduced attentiveness.

And several publications suggest that microdosing can help ramp up someone’s creative thinking, too. Not only can microdosing potentially help you work better, some other studies suggest that they can help you feel better too, by increasing your overall feelings of fulfillment and wellbeing. So depending on exactly how someone wants to hack their productivity, microdosing has the potential to help them out.

And the strongest evidence we have for the benefits of microdosing are for its use in pain management. Microdosing seems to pretty clearly increase people’s ability to withstand pain across both experimental and survey studies. These include the classic “how long can you hold your hand in ice water,” and also stuff like treating migraines.

Microdoses can even be comparable to oxycodone and morphine, and some people prefer to manage their pain via microdosing instead of taking medications  they get from the pharmacy. That’s something the medical and  research community should take seriously. [midroll] And as we learn more about  what microdosing can do, we also need to figure out what mechanisms are at play. One idea is that microdosing could work in a similar way to meditation, by redirecting a person’s attention and helping them move beyond their worries.

But there’s some evidence that microdosing affects how  your brain communicates, too. One collaboration between the US and Switzerland used functional magnetic resonance imaging, also known as fMRI, to learn how microdosing changes people’s brains. They found an increase in the connection between their emotion centers and a part of the brain involved in regulating working memory and impulse control.

So that might help people manage their emotions. And that’s pretty much what happens when people take hallucinogens at higher doses, so it’s not a huge shock. But it’s still impressive to get those results from such a small dose.

It’s also pretty well  established that at higher doses, these hallucinogens use serotonin to block pain and make people feel euphoric. Which might be why microdosing the same drugs help people manage their emotions, since that’s kind of like how  SSRI antidepressants work. This isn’t the only hypothesis for why something like LSD could boost someone’s mood by reducing their pain.

But because microdosing is so under-studied, we just need more research to suss out which ones hold water. Ultimately, whether it’s through  increased brain connections or boosting serotonin activity, the research suggests that microdosing might really be able to do some good. Sure, some researchers have suggested that it could be a placebo or the combined use with psychotherapy, which probably helps in its own right.

But even so, there seems to be more to the story than just pure placebo effect. And if I haven’t made it clear by now, scientists really only ramped  up microdosing research in the last few years. So there’s a lot we don’t know about it.

Okay, now that we know about the intended effects of microdosing, let’s talk side effects. Microdosers self-report experiencing things like insomnia, headaches, and dizziness. And these mini-doses may even put your heart at risk, too.

Some of these drugs affect serotonin production, and other studies suggest that chronically taking a drug that ups your serotonin activity may cause heart disease. So while one of the alleged  benefits to microdosing is supposed to be that it has fewer side effects, we still don’t have enough evidence to know if that’s actually true. Laboratory experiments can help us understand some of the side  effects of microdosing, sure, but there’s only so much we can learn from just studying someone taking a micro dose once or twice.

Most people who actually microdose will do so over and over again, and we definitely need more info on what that does to a person. And I have to stress that these drugs are often unregulated. If you don’t know how much you’re taking, you can’t really control your microdose.

Not only that, but we have  only just scratched the surface in figuring out what size  microdose would be effective. There’s also another problem. When we’ve been talking about microdosing in this video, we’ve combined insights from people who microdosed completely different drugs.

We’ve had to, since most of the review papers we found on microdosing did that too. Which definitely limits the  conclusions we can draw, because we’re comparing apples and oranges and, uhh, mushrooms. What they do know is that the ideal dose for LSD will probably be different  from the dose for mushrooms.

And the dose for fresh mushrooms may be different from the dose for dried mushrooms. So, again, it’s not one-size-fits-all. Depending on the situation, microdosing might work for some people.

But in these early days of research, we have to take all of this with a microdose of salt. [ OUTRO ]