A new pilot study evaluating the reportedly increasing practice of microdosing psychedelic drugs found that low doses of LSD may have some potential cognitive benefits for women but offered no measurable benefits for men.
When presenting the findings at the ECNP annual congress in Munich, the research team cautioned that the results were based on a small study group, but added that the findings also suggest microdosing’s cognitive benefits may vary by group, task, circumstances, or even the individual.
Anecdotal Evidence Suggests LSD Microdosing Improves Cognitive Abilities
Psychedelic drugs like LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and mescaline have traditionally been used to initiate dynamic or even mystical psychological experiences, ranging from religious ceremonies to recreational consumption.
More recently, users have begun experimenting with microdosing. According to the research team, the growing practice involves consuming a markedly smaller amount of the drug than that typically associated with psychedelic experiences in hopes of improving several areas of cognitive performance.
For example, when announcing the results, researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and the University of Maastricht noted that some people hope that an LSD microdose will improve focus, concentration, productivity, or mood. The research team also highlighted “anecdotal reports” of people using LSD to manage problems with attention.
Still, given the relatively recent microdosing trend, scientific analysis has lagged behind actual studies verifying or refuting the practice’s potential benefits and evaluating any potential side effects.
“Microdosing of psychedelics has received much attention in media, so testing this in a proper research context is important to advance our knowledge on the subject,” explained study coauthor Dr Mikkel Højlund from the University of Southern Denmark.
Experiments Reveal Benefits for Women but None for Men
To begin, the researchers recruited 48 “healthy” volunteers: 24 men and 24 women. The volunteers averaged 36.9 years old.
Each participant received four doses of either 15 micrograms of LSD or a placebo over a two-week period. This dose is reportedly roughly one-fourth of the 60 micrograms typically associated with an LSD psychedelic “trip.” To maintain scientific integrity, neither the researchers nor the subjects knew beforehand which volunteer received which dose.
During the test period, the study’s lead researcher, Iva Totomanova of the University of Maastricht, said they examined the effects of LSD on “3 different cognitive tasks.” This included evaluating each volunteer’s ability to sustain attention and process information, as well as tests of each subject’s working memory.
The first analysis took place at the start of the study. Researchers conducted additional cognitive performance evaluations after the initial dose, after the fourth and final dose, and at a follow-up evaluation after the study was completed. Although the results varied, the team found several patterns that may suggest a larger sex-associated effect.
For example, an attention test involving quick responses to an on-screen signal revealed a significant difference between the men and women who volunteered. When women received a placebo, their reaction times tended to lag compared to the men’s. The “sober” women volunteers also displayed more attention lapses than the placebo-dosed men given the same task. But tests of the LSD microdosing showed a dramatically different result.
According to the study authors, volunteer women who received the LSD microdose “responded about 8% faster to the stimulus than in the placebo condition.” This included an average response time decrease from 335ms to 308ms.
Perhaps even more significant, the LSD dosed women volunteers made an average of 2.3 sustained attention lapses, whereas women who received the placebo made an average of 4.7 lapses. The team said this attention benefit pattern “was seen after the first dose, after repeated dosing and at follow-up.”
Conversely, when the team compared the results of the LSD microdosing men and the placebo group, they found “no comparable improvement” in any of the measured cognitive processes.
Beneficial Effects May Depend on Person, Task, and Circumstances
When discussing the potential implications of the study’s findings, Totomanova said the “key finding” was that LSD appears to improve how women sustain attention in specific tasks. However, the researcher said the potential benefits of LSD microdosing on information processing and working memory cognitive tasks “were not as clear-cut.” The team said this ambiguity may have led to “sex-related effects being missed in previous studies.”
“It’s important to note that while our work suggests that microdosed LSD improves sustained attention in women, it does not show that low-dose LSD generally improves cognition, nor that women are generally more responsive to LSD than men,” Totomanova explained. “Instead, the results point to a more cautious message: effects may depend on the person, the cognitive task being measured and the circumstances of use.”
“A better question may be, who responds to microdosing, and under what circumstances?” the researcher added.
Christopher Plain has spent the last six years as Associate News Editor and Head Science Reporter at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his novels at plainfiction.com, or email him at christopher@thedebrief.org.