Ian Sample, writing for The Guardian:
It became the trend in Silicon Valley and spread swiftly around the world: the latest hack to boost the mood, sharpen the mind and get the creative juices flowing.
But for all the entrepreneurs and tech gurus that flocked to the practice, scientists have never been sure whether consuming small doses of LSD has the benefits its advocates claim.
Much of the problem is down to the law. Without easy access to the schedule 1 drug, researchers have struggled to run clinical trials. In their absence, most evidence is anecdotal. And as scientists are all too happy to stress, the plural of anecdote is not data.
Now researchers at Imperial College London have made progress on the question. In the largest placebo-controlled trial into psychedelics to date, they found that small doses of LSD indeed boosted the psychology in all manner of ways.
That was only half of the results, however. When the researchers examined what trial volunteers took, they found placebos worked equally as well as the drug. In short, the uplift reported by microdosers might be nothing more than the placebo effect.
It’s great to see some research come out about microdosing, but as far as I’m concerned the debate about its efficacy is still far from resolved. After all, this is just one study. Regardless of whether there’s something inherently beneficial about microdosing itself or if it just comes down to the placebo effect, we know something is happening here.
Personally, I think there are probably benefits of microdosing that are independent from the placebo effect, but I’m not completely sold on that idea and will reserve my final judgment for when we have a more solid body of microdosing research.