A study done at the Imperial College London thoroughly explored the very popular activity of microdosing LSD.
According to The Guardian, this was the “largest-ever placebo-controlled investigation into the potential benefits of psychedelics”.
In its conclusion, the study found that the positive benefits found from microdosing were equal to the benefits found in the control group, meaning the placebo is either as effective, or is the only actual benefit.
Balàzs Szigeti, the lead author of the study, said “Our findings confirmed some of the beneficial psychological effects of microdosing from anecdotal reports and observational studies, such as improved sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction. But we see the same improvements among participants taking placebos. This suggests that the improvements may not be due to the pharmacological action of the drug but can instead be explained by the placebo effect.”
The study was done with 191 subjects who were already microdosing LSD. They each sorted out doses, some of them being placebo, some not, and shuffled the deck. They never knew if they were taking LSD or not that day.
The scientists themselves accepted that the study wasn’t perfect, and needed a “laboratory-based placebo-controlled clinical study” to truly understand the data, but that won’t happen until LSD is taken off of the Schedule I category.
Nonetheless, the results were positive, placebo or not.