K. P. Kuypers’s research while affiliated with Maastricht University and other places

Microdosing psychedelics has garnered considerable attention within both nonprofessional circles and the scientific community in recent years. This method involves taking small, non-hallucinogenic doses of substances like LSD or psilocybin over weeks or months, purportedly to enhance specific behaviors, emotions, or address psychiatric conditions. Exploring these assertions is crucial given the potential therapeutic value of microdosing, especially in conditions that respond positively to full psychedelic doses, such as depression. The full psychedelic experience might not always be suitable due to various factors like age, capacity to consent or comprehend the experience (e.g., dementia), or individual personality traits that might hinder surrendering to the experience. Microdosing could potentially serve as a maintenance therapy post-full dose administration, aiding specific psychological or biological processes during therapy or therapeutic exercises. Recent studies in healthy individuals highlight that small psychedelic doses have nuanced effects on pain perception, mood, neuroplasticity, sleep duration, brain connectivity, and default mode network synchronicity. However, some parameters show null effects after both single and repeated administration. Our survey research uncovered that individuals with ADHD reported symptom relief through microdosing, deeming it more effective than their conventional treatments. Subsequently, we conducted a naturalistic study following individuals with ADHD across a 4-week microdosing period. Our findings indicated a reduction in symptoms over time, an increase in trait mindfulness, and a decrease in neuroticism compared to baseline. While these results are intriguing, they necessitate validation in a clinical trial. We have recently concluded such a trial and are currently analyzing the data to further explore these effects. Disclosure of Interest K. Kuypers Grant / Research support from: The author is a principal investigator on a research project that is sponsored by Mindmed, a company that is developing psychedelic medicines.

Decades ago, the classical psychedelics psilocybin and LSD entered the therapeutic setting and already then showed their therapeutic potential in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. For thousands of years another psychedelic, ayahuasca, is being used by tribes in western Amazonia for healing and divination, and in recent years its use has expanded worldwide. Research into the therapeutic potential of these substances has re-emerged and (preliminary) findings are promising, showing that after one or two administrations remission is reached in depressed patients that were labeled as treatment-resistant. This is a remarkable finding as the therapeutic effects of treatment with conventional pharmacological agents like SSRIs take longer to lead to remission, with one-third of the patients failing to reach this stage. The fast onset of positive therapeutic effects by psychedelics increases the interest to discover the mechanism of action behind this. There is a debate about the importance of the psychological experience caused by these agents in the therapeutic outcome, while science also tries to understand the neurobiological correlates. The latter will be addressed in my talk and I will link it to psychedelics’ therapeutic effects. Disclosure of Interest None Declared