In this months episode of PiMPOD, I, Ben Clayden am once again joined with Dr Torsten Passie. Today we’ll take a look into the science of microdosing psychedelics.

We discuss the background history and science before taking a look at two recent papers looking at the effects of microdosing psilocybin. We take a look into the placebo effect and the role of expectation and finally, Torsten shares his thoughts on methodological approaches to avoiding participants breaking blind, and what a useful placebo may be for microdosing.

Dr Torsten Passie is a German psychiatrist, professor at Hannover Medical School and is an expert in altered states of consciousness. In 2019 Torsten published The Science of Microdosing Psychedelics, a comprehensive review of scientific data, where he reveals the rich and little known history of research with micro and low dose psychedelics. The over 200 page book has been revised and recommended by David Nichols, the leading LSD scientist and by the leading microdosing expert, James Fadiman.

Ben Clayden is a student at the University of York studying Natural Sciences specialising in Neuroscience. He is co-chair for the Drug Science Student Society Network as well as the president of his Universities Psychedelics in Medicine Society

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Related Topics

Microdosing, LSD, Psilocybin, Psychedelics, Medicine, Placebo, Neuroscience, Science, Mental Health, Health

References

Balázs SzigetiLaura KartnerAllan BlemingsFernando RosasAmanda FeildingDavid J NuttRobin L Carhart-HarrisDavid Erritzoe (2021) Self-blinding citizen science to explore psychedelic microdosing eLife 10:e62878. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.6287

van Elk, M., Fejer, G., Lempe, P. et al. Effects of psilocybin microdosing on awe and aesthetic experiences: a preregistered field and lab-based study. Psychopharmacology 239, 1705–1720 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05857-0