Drugs Habits and Social Policy
May 27, 2026
Estelle Miller, David B Menkes, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy et al.
Purpose Current laws prohibiting access to illicit drugs contribute to drug harms as manufacturers and distributors of illicit substances have variable influence over drug supply and quality. Legislation introduced in New Zealand (NZ) in 2021 aimed to address such harm by enabling licenced drug checking providers to directly analyse samples from consumers. This paper aims to detail the use of...
Drug Science Policy and Law
2026
Sam Lasham, Rhys Ponton
1 citation
Laws to control drugs have been progressively introduced since the early twentieth century to reduce non-medical use and drug-associated harm. Restrictions on what are now deemed ‘controlled drugs’ and, in New Zealand, ‘prohibited plants’ unjustly impact both medical care and research. The impact on research has frequently been cited in reference to the use of drugs in clinical research, such...
Journal of Chromatographic Science
November 15, 2025
Mahima Bansal, Estelle Miller, Rachael Sumner et al.
With the rising interest in therapeutic potential of microdosing lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), accurate quantification and stability analysis are imperative for both scientific research and end-user safety. Currently, high throughput quantification of LSD in clinical microdosing formulations and community sourced microdosing samples remain a challenge due to the absence of fast analytical...
Neuropharmacology
November 5, 2025
Dimitri Daldegan-Bueno, C Donegan, Rachael Sumner et al.
4 citations
Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects approximately 5 % of the global population. Classic psychedelics have shown promise in treating various mental health disorders. This study evaluated the feasibility and tolerability of an 8-week regimen of microdosed lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) as a treatment for major depressive disorder in an open-label phase 2A trial (LSDDEP1). Nineteen...
Trials
August 24, 2024
Dimitri Daldegan-Bueno, Carina Joy Donegan, Anna Forsyth et al.
14 citations
Major depressive disorder (MDD) poses a significant global health burden with available treatments limited by inconsistent efficacy and notable side effects. Classic psychedelics, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), have garnered attention for their potential in treating psychiatric disorders. Microdosing, the repeated consumption of sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics, has emerged...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
January 22, 2024
Estelle Miller, Vida Bojovic, Olivia Maddren et al.
ABSTRACT “Microdosing,” defined as the consumption of small, sub-hallucinogenic quantities of psychedelic drugs, has gained recent popularity. Microdosing is a relatively new concept, therefore no scientific recommendations exist on how to prepare and consume microdoses. Many consumers obtain microdosing information online. Few studies have investigated the content of this information; thus,...
Pilot and Feasibility Studies
October 5, 2023
Carina Joy Donegan, Dimitri Daldegan-Bueno, Rachael Sumner et al.
23 citations
Globally, an estimated 260 million people suffer from depression [1], and there is a clear need for the development of new, alternative antidepressant therapies. In light of problems with the tolerability and efficacy of available treatments [2], a global trend is emerging for patients to self-treat depression with microdoses of psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and...
Biological Psychiatry
September 15, 2023
Robin J Murphy, Rachael Sumner, William Evans et al.
69 citations
Microdosing psychedelic drugs is a widespread social phenomenon with diverse benefits claimed for mood and cognition. Randomized controlled trials have failed to support these claims, but the laboratory-based dosing in trials conducted to date may have limited ecological validity. Healthy male volunteers were randomized into lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (n = 40) and placebo (n = 40) groups...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
August 1, 2021
Rachael Sumner, Emme Chacko, Rebecca McMillan et al.
68 citations
Ketamine is central to one of the most rapidly growing areas of neuroscientific research into novel treatments for depression. Limited research has indicated that the psychedelic properties of ketamine may play a role in its antidepressant effects. The aim of the current study was to explore the psychedelic experiences and sustained impact of ketamine in major depressive disorder. In the...
Trials
April 23, 2021
Robin J Murphy, Rachael Sumner, William Evans et al.
23 citations
BACKGROUND: Regular ingestion of sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics, referred to as "microdosing", has gained increasing popularity and attention in the press and in online forums, with reported benefits across multiple cognitive and emotional domains. Rigorously controlled studies to date, however, have been limited in scope and have failed to produce results comparable to those reported...