In a large observational study, psilocybin microdosers showed small- to medium-sized improvements in mood and mental health at one month compared with non-microdosing controls
A 2022 study followed adults who chose to microdose psilocybin mushrooms and a comparison group who did not, tracking their mood and mental health over about a month.
Microdosing means taking psychedelic doses too small to feel like a full trip, and many people say it lifts their mood. This study followed a large group of adults using a mobile research app: 953 who were microdosing psilocybin mushrooms and 180 who were not. Over about a month, the microdosers reported small- to medium-sized improvements in mood and mental health — less depression, anxiety, and stress, and more positive mood — while the comparison group changed little. Because people chose their own group and knew which one they were in, and because there was no dummy pill, the study cannot show that microdosing itself caused the changes. It points to a pattern worth testing in more controlled research.
Using a naturalistic, observational design, the investigators followed 953 psilocybin microdosers and 180 non-microdosing comparators — self-selected users of a mobile research app — for approximately 30 days, comparing self-reported mood and mental health from baseline to one month. Relative to comparators, microdosers showed greater improvements across depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS) and greater gains in positive and lower negative mood (PANAS). Between-group effect sizes at one month were small to medium: depression d = 0.39, anxiety d = 0.32, stress d = 0.26, positive mood d = 0.66, negative mood d = 0.4. Within the microdosing group, depression scores fell from 13.05 to 8.18 (d = 0.49) versus 13.08 to 11.9 (d = 0.1) among comparators. Effects were generally consistent across gender, age, and presence of mental health concerns; psychomotor improvements were specific to older adults.
The authors note the study's observational design and generally exploratory approach, and caution that interpretation is limited by potential response bias from participant self-selection and recruitment through venues favorable toward psychedelic use, which may have overrepresented people who respond favorably to microdosing. They also note that dose and dosing practices were not investigated, that adverse effects and interactions with typical antidepressants and anxiolytics were not assessed, and that some subgroup samples were small. Beyond the authors' own caveats, the design carried no placebo and no blinding — participants knew whether they were microdosing, so expectancy or placebo effects could contribute to the self-reported results. Several authors report financial ties to companies in the psychedelic and microdosing space, and the data-collection platform was provided by one of those companies. The sample was general-population app users, not a clinical or veteran group.
In this naturalistic, observational study following psilocybin microdosers (n = 953) and non-microdosing comparators (n = 180) for approximately 30 days, the authors reported small- to medium-sized improvements in mood and mental health among microdosers (Rootman et al., 2022).
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