What is Microdosing?

“Microdosing” is the practice of ingesting small, sub-perceptual amounts of psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. Microdosing has become an increasingly prevalent practice, especially in the tech industry (Kuchler, 2017; Solon, 2016), where it is often used to increase focus, motivation, quality of relationships, and creativity. LSD is the most common substance used in microdosing practices and will be the focus of this study. A microdose is often described as a level of dosage that is 1/10th to 1/20th the normal dose used to have a psychedelic experience, with the goal being to obtain a dosage level that is “sub-threshold” or sub-perceptual, while typically being as close to the just-noticeable difference of a perceptual effect as possible. Regarding LSD, a microdose is usually considered to be 10±5µg, and sometimes as high as 20 µg. Doses higher than this are typically within the range of perception.

References

Kuchler, H. (2017). How Silicon Valley rediscovered LSD. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/0a5a4404-7c8e-11e7-ab01-a13271d1ee9c

Solon, O. (2016, August 24). Meet the Silicon Valley-ites taking tiny hits of LSD to boost performance. Wired UK. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/article/lsd-microdosing-drugs-silicon-valley