Mar 04, 2021 17:00:00

The claim that 'taking a small amount of LSD increases concentration and satisfaction' may only be a placebo effect.

Known as a hallucinogen,

diethylamide (LSD) is a type of drug that is regulated in various countries, including Japan, but regular doses of very small doses increase concentration and productivity, leading to depression. It is said that it is also effective. However, a research team at Imperial College London conducted an experiment with about 200 people and argued that 'the psychological benefits of improving well-being and life satisfaction may be explained by the placebo effect.' It was.

Benefits of LSD Microdosing Might Just Be a Manifestation of The Placebo Effect
https://www.sciencealert.com/microdosing-psychedelics-like-lsd-may-just-produce-a-placebo-effect-study-says

Self-blinding citizen science to explore psychedelic microdosing | eLife
https://elifesciences.org/articles/62878

Microdosing with'shrooms or LSD no better than placebo, study finds | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/microdosing-lsd-placebo-effect.html

LSD, which was successfully synthesized in 1938, is known as a hallucinogen that changes perception, emotion, and consciousness, and has been widely used as a psychedelic drug among hippies since the 1960s. In Japan, it has been subject to the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law since 1970.

However, 'Microdose', which takes only a small amount of LSD and magic mushroom powder, which are hallucinogens, improves mental state and improves cognitive ability, and may be used as a treatment for mental illness such as depression in the future. It is expected and research is underway in recent years.

What is 'LSD Microdose' that improves creativity and depressive symptoms by taking a small amount of LSD? --GIGAZINE

by Chuck Olsen

However, a research team at Imperial College London pointed out that the placebo effect could bias the demonstration of these microdose effects. An online blinded symmetry experiment was conducted with 191 men and women in their 20s and 40s who said they had experienced LSD microdose.

The research team gave subjects either a pill containing 7.5 to 18.5 micrograms of LSD or 0.1 to 0.3 g of dry magic mushrooms or a dummy pill containing nothing and let them take it at home for a month. .. At that time, the subjects were not informed of which pill they were taking, and we investigated how their well-being and life satisfaction changed throughout the month.

As a result, there was a significant improvement in happiness, mindfulness, life satisfaction, and cognitive ability in the group of subjects who were taking a small amount of LSD. However, the research team reported that similar improvements were seen in the group of subjects taking the dummy pill, with no significant difference from the group of subjects taking LSD.

The research team acknowledged that the experiment was held online and is less rigorous than the original clinical trial, but 'the placebo effect may affect the results of studies in LSD applications. Was shown. '

'In our experiments, extensive psychological measurements have observed the benefits of LSD microdose,' said Balázs Sziget, lead author of the treatise at the Center for Psychology Research at Imperial College London. However, on the other hand, similar benefits were seen among subjects taking fake drugs, which suggests that psychological improvement may be due to the placebo effect rather than the LSD microdose. I am doing it. '

According to the research team, many were shocked when they told a group of subjects who had been taking dummy pills since the end of the experiment, 'You were not taking LSD and were taking dummy pills.' It was said that it was. One subject told researchers, 'You injected spirituality into an empty, empty pill. This is amazing!'