New mothers are doing it to relieve postpartum depression. Tech CEOs are partaking to enhance productivity. Artists seek a creative boost, and chronic pain sufferers want relief. Microdosing — taking very small doses of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD or psilocybin mushrooms — has entered the cultural consciousness as the panacea of the moment.
The trend — which is also illegal — is part of a new dawning awareness of psychedelics, in particular psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms. Several cities and states, including New York, this year have introduced legislation to decriminalize the compound or allow its medicinal use.
Not since the 1960s has there been so much interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics with multiple clinical studies on psilocybin indicating widespread benefits, from treating depression and drug addiction to relieving end-of-life anxiety. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins has an entire center now devoted to research on the natural compound.
But when it comes to microdosing — taking a “sub-perceptual” or infinitesimal dose, roughly one-20th to one-10th of a recreational dose, on a semi-regular basis — the jury is still out, with new research suggesting a potential placebo effect.
As psychotherapist Dee Dee Goldpaugh, LSCW, who has a practice in Woodstock and New York City, says, “People who microdose and believe they will get better, tend to do so.”
Alternatively, psychedelic therapy, in which Goldpaugh specializes, involves taking doses large enough to feel a perceptible shift in consciousness in the presence of — or followed by sessions with — a trained mental health professional.
“What we do know from the clinical literature,” said Goldpaugh, who is also the community support and integration director of the Hudson Valley Psychedelic Society (HVPS), “is in a controlled safe clinical context, with therapeutic support, high doses of psilocybin seem to produce antidepressant effects.”
From criminalization to marijuana mainstream
In the mid-20th century, therapists began to experiment with psilocybin, but after a backlash against the countercultural movement of the 1960s and its embrace of psychedelics, magic mushrooms were designated illegal and later classified as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration, on par with heroin, but also marijuana, “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Research ground to a halt.
Visual essay: The psychedelic life in Millbrook