In the largest app-based survey of microdosers, health and wellness were the top reasons people gave, and those with mental health concerns reported slightly lower depression, anxiety, and stress than non-microdosers
A 2021 survey used a mobile app to compare people who microdose psychedelics with people who don't, looking at their reasons for microdosing and their reported mental health.
Microdosing means taking psychedelic doses too small to feel like a full trip. This survey, run through a phone app, compared more than 4,000 people who microdose with more than 4,600 who don't, asking why they microdose and how they were doing mentally. Psilocybin mushrooms were the most common microdose, used by about 85 percent. Health and wellness were the top reasons people gave. Among those who reported mental health concerns, the microdosers scored a little lower on depression, anxiety, and stress than the non-microdosers, but the authors describe that difference as small. Because everyone was measured only once, the study is a snapshot and cannot show that microdosing caused the lower scores.
This cross-sectional observational study surveyed 4050 self-selected microdosers and 4653 non-microdosers through the Quantified Citizen mobile application (data collected November 2019-July 2020). Psilocybin was the most common microdose substance (85%), and the authors documented diverse practices around dosage, frequency, and 'stacking' with substances such as Lion's Mane mushrooms and niacin. Health and wellness-related motives were the most prominent reasons for microdosing, especially among females and those reporting mental health concerns. Within the subgroup reporting mental health concerns, microdosers (n = 863) scored lower on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) than non-microdosers (n = 788) across gender, with effect sizes the authors characterize as small: depression d = 0.19, anxiety d = 0.17, stress d = 0.12.
The authors state plainly that the cross-sectional design precludes causal inference: the data are a single snapshot, so lower symptom scores among microdosers cannot be attributed to microdosing. They note response bias from participant self-selection and recruitment through venues favorable toward psychedelic use, which may have caused overrepresentation, and that the app was iOS-only at the time, limiting participation to people with Apple devices. They add that a more comprehensive psychodiagnostic approach would strengthen confidence in generalizing to clinical populations, and they call for rigorous longitudinal designs such as randomized clinical trials and large cohort studies. The authors themselves place the observed differences in the range typically characterized as small (d = 0.12-0.19). Beyond these stated limitations, the sample is a general-population, self-selected group of app users rather than a clinical or veteran cohort, and several authors disclosed financial relationships with psychedelic-medicine and data-platform companies, including the platform that supplied the data.
Among individuals reporting mental health concerns, microdosers exhibited lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than non-microdosers, and the authors characterized these differences as small (Rootman et al., 2021).
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