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No Longer a Magic Bullet: New Study Finds Significant Placebo Effects in Psychedelic Microdosing
Imperial College London has found further evidence that the effects of microdosing may all be in your head
A new study from Imperial College London has demonstrated that psychedelic microdosing may yield nothing more than placebo effects.
Published in eLife, the study finds that a participant’s belief that they were taking a microdose was more influential on positive changes in mental health measures than the microdose itself.
Lead author of the study, Balázs Szigeti, writes:
“Our findings confirm the anecdotal benefits of microdosing (improvements in a broad range of psychological measures); however, the results also suggest that the improvements are not due to the pharmacological action of microdosing, but are rather explained by the placebo effect.”
The Biggest Psychedelic Study to Date
The study in question is the largest placebo-controlled trial on psychedelics in modern research history, with 191 participants completing a 4-week regimen of microdosing. Previous studies on microdosing have, up until now, lacked a placebo-control due to logistical issues.
