Microdosing Psychedelics Clinical Trial (Toronto)
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Microdosing is more popular than ever, but we still don’t understand how it works and what it does. There has been a recent groundswell of journalism on the topic, but there is almost no scientific evidence for the effects of this practice.
Our team of psychologists and psychiatrists recently completed one of the first-ever studies on microdosing psychedelics using an online sample. This pre-registered, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional study drew on a large sample size of nearly 1000 participants from 29 countries. We obtained some encouraging results (for example, microdosing’s relation to higher creativity and open-mindedness). Still, they only tell us so much: in this case, we can’t infer causality from a correlational study.
That’s why we’ve designed a longitudinal crossover washout RCT (randomized control trial): to demonstrate the empirical psychological effects of microdosing. We will measure nearly ten discreet constructs (including creativity, well-being, mindfulness, and intelligence), the time it takes microdoses to cause these effects, and how long it takes to subside. This study will compare microdosing psilocybin (the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms") to a placebo on various cognitive, emotional, and creativity tasks.
Your support towards our GoFundMe will make this study possible, allowing us to compensate our 100 participants. This is our best chance to determine if the correlations we found are caused by microdosing, and how they might affect real-life situations.
Some of the anecdotes people reported in our online survey include "While microdosing you have a broader perspective and little problems don't worry you" ; "I started my microdosing experiment with psilocybin mushrooms and therein got relief from depression and alcoholism,"; and "[M]y psychiatric problems (depression, anxiety and drug misuse) were diminished. [I] stayed sober, active, happy and created a lot". These responses are exciting, but anecdotes can't replace science; we're trying to replace anecdotes with science. Our lab study will put these anecdotal reports to the test so that we can confidently discover what microdosing can (and can't) do.
Our research will be pre-registered and publicly shared (as was our past research ), contributing to the scientific community and making scientific knowledge fully accessible the way science was meant to be. People are using these substances with incredible potential; we need to see what's out there to inform the general public, policymakers, and clinicians.
Safety: We know with confidence from numerous studies that psychedelics are safe at full ("macro") doses. That means that our research on microdosing will be safe, and, judging from anecdotal reports, could dramatically improve many people's well-being.
The money we are raising in this project will be pooled with the funding we are collecting from other philanthropists and grants we are seeking from public institutions. While some people have quickly realized that this research is important and was happy to add their resources to ours, we have also met with some reluctance from more traditional academic funding outlets. By helping us fund this research, you will be making your voice heard and contributing to a scientific endeavour that can potentially improve the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Rotem Petranker is a Clinical Psychology PhD student in McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada). His main research interests are sustained attention, emotional regulation, and creativity, which are ostensibly affected by microdosing psychedelics.
Media:
Our previous work on Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Microdosing-Psychedelics
Our published paper: https://rdcu.be/bffhp
Thanks to Amy G for helping with everything and Yuval Aberman for the original music.
Organizer
Rotem Petranker
Organizer
Toronto, ON
