"The most common reason for microdosing in our survey was as an alternative therapy for mental health. And a majority reported that they found it was as helpful or more helpful than psychiatric medications," says Toby Lea, PhD, lead study author and a researcher at the Centre for Social Research in Health at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
Researchers from the Netherlands reported similar findings in a 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychiatry. When they surveyed 3,590 microdosers who had at least one mental or physical health disorder, participants reported that self-medicating with microdoses of psychedelics was more effective than conventional treatments for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and certain physiological disorders like migraines or chronic pain.
Dr. Jefferson Graham, a member of the team, has been moderating our psilocybin discussion forum at the Georgia Mushroom Festival sind 2019.
EXCERPT: Researchers in the School of Public Health are conducting a clinical trial to see whether psilocybin, the active compound found in Psilocybe mushrooms, will help individuals addicted to cocaine stop using the harmful drug.
“We aren’t advocating for everyone to go out and do it,” said Peter Hendricks, Ph.D., associate professor of health behavior in the School of Public Health at UAB. “What we are saying is that this drug, like every other drug, could have appropriate use in a medical setting. We want to see whether it helps treat cocaine use disorder.”