Insights into psychedelic microdosing from the Global Drug Survey

Authors: Sifan Cao, Cheneal Puljević, Jason Ferris

Psychedelic microdosing is the practice of using sub-preceptive threshold doses (microdoses) of serotonergic psychedelic drugs, e.g. lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin (magic mushrooms).¹ It has become popular in many western societies due to its potential to improve creativity, physical energy levels, emotional balance, and performance on problem-solving tasks.¹ Some people also microdose with psychedelics to self-treat depression, anxiety, and addiction²; however, the extent to which microdosing psychedelics is effective for treating mental illnesses remains largely unknown.³

The Global Drug Survey (GDS), the world’s largest annual online survey of drug use, has been exploring microdosing with psychedelics over the past four years. So, what does GDS tell us about microdosing with psychedelics, including for mental health treatment?

Questions on past-year psychedelic use were first included in GDS in 2015. With the release of the GDS 2021 report, we now have seven years of data on psychedelic use, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Microdosing is defined as taking a very low dose depending on the drug used, i.e., < 20 micrograms for LSD, <0.2 grams for magic mushrooms, or <0.01 grams of pure psilocybin. The table below shows the prevalence of the last 12 months microdosing with LSD and magic mushrooms in GDS 2018-2021.

Table 1. Past 12 months microdosing with LSD and magic mushrooms in GDS 2018-2021

Using GDS 2020 as an example, 5.56% (6,242 out of 112,341) participants had microdosed with either LSD or magic mushrooms in the past 12 months. Table 2 breaks these microdosers down by age and sex. It shows that males were most likely to adopt this practice (71.61%) and those aged 16-30 made up more than 50% of all microdosers.

Table 2. Last 12 months microdosing with LSD or magic mushrooms in GDS 2020, by age and sex

Figure 1 shows the overall psychedelic use trends among GDS respondents over the past seven years, from 2015 to 2021. Between 2018 and 2020, respondents’ reported use of LSD, magic mushrooms, ketamine, and nitrous oxide in the last 12 months increased steadily. LSD (orange line) and ketamine (navy-blue line) show a near-identical pattern of change, with the most significant increase occurring between 2018 and 2020. Magic mushrooms (grey line) and nitrous oxide (sky-blue line) also demonstrate a similar pattern of change, with the steepest increase between 2018 and 2019. MDMA (yellow line) was a bit different; its use reached the first peak in 2016 (31%) and dropped to 18% in 2017, after when a sharp climb led the prevalence to the highest in 2020 (38%). Use of all psychedelics decreased since 2020, except for magic mushrooms, which remained at pre-COVID levels of use during the pandemic (16%). The greatest drop in GDS respondents’ psychedelics use was for MDMA, decreasing from 38% in 2020 to 26% in 2021.

Figure 1. Trends in psychedelic use among Global Drug Survey respondents between 2015 and 2021. Figure produced using data from GDS2021 Executive Summary with permission.

In GDS 2020, participants were also asked about past use of psychedelics for mental health treatment with the question, “Have you ever used LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Ketamine, MDMA, Peyote, Kambo, DMT, 5-MEO DMT (toad venom), Ayahuasca, or Ibogaine with the specific intention of improving your: a) General mental health and well-being when feeling basically OK with life or for personal development? b) Managing a diagnosed psychiatric condition? c) To address a specific worry / concern in your life e.g., relationship issue, bereavement, addiction, trauma?”, from which they could choose one of four response options: “Yes, in the last 30 days”; “Yes, between 31 days and 12 months”; “Yes, but not in the last 12 months”; and “No, never”.

A total of 71,616 participants responded to the question, and 17,260 of them (24.10%) reported they had done this for the specific purpose in the last 12 months. Among the 17,260 past-year psychedelic users, 9,744 of them (56.45%) reported the use was specifically for self-treatment of a diagnosed psychiatric condition or a specific worry/concern (emotional distress); the remaining 43.55% (7,516 participants) reported using it only to improve general wellbeing. Table 3 shows the purpose of the past-year psychedelic use by sex. Male made up 68% of such psychedelic users, with the intent to self-manage their mental illnesses (37.10%) and general wellbeing (30.98%). GDS researchers will explore the acceptability of microdosing psychedelics as treatment for common psychiatric conditions in 2022 ⁴.

Table 3. Purpose of last 12 months use of psychedelics, by sex

Usually launched at the end of each year, the GDS also launched a special release survey from May to June 2020 to offer insights into the impact COVID-19 has had on people who use alcohol and other drugs (see here for reports).This year, GDS is celebrating its 10-year anniversary, and the 2022 survey is now open! To take part in this important research, please click here. More info about GDS can be found at https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/.

References

1.           Kaertner LS, Steinborn MB, Kettner H, Spriggs MJ, Roseman L, Buchborn T, et al. Positive expectations predict improved mental-health outcomes linked to psychedelic microdosing. Scientific Reports 2021;11(1):1941.

2.           Liokaftos D. Sociological investigations of human enhancement drugs: The case of microdosing psychedelics. International Journal of Drug Policy 2021;95:103099.

3.           Sarris J, Pinzon Rubiano D, Day K, Galvão-Coelho NL, Perkins D. Psychedelic medicines for mood disorders: current evidence and clinical considerations. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 2022;35(1):22-29.

4.           Winstock A, Maier L, Zhuparris A, Davies E, Puljevic C, Kuypers K, et al. Global Drug Survey (GDS) 2021 Key Findings Report. 2021 https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Report2021_global.pdf (accessed 11 December 2021).