Multimodal creativity assessments following acute and sustained microdosing of lysergic acid diethylamide.
Robin J Murphy, Rachael Sumner, Kate Godfrey, Acima Mabidikama, Reece P Roberts, Frederick Sundram, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy
Psychopharmacology February 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-024-06680-z (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 80 |
| Population | Healthy adult males |
| Intervention | LSD |
| Dose | 10 µg |
| Duration | Six-week intervention with drug-free baseline, first dosing session, and drug-free final session |
| Topics | LSD Microdosing |
| Keywords | Low-dose Creativity creative thinking Creative ability Artistic expression Convergent thinking Microdosing divergent thinking Psychedelics hallucinogens Entheogens Psychoactive drugs Microdosing sub-perceptual dosing |
| Citations | 9 |
| Key findings | Microdosing LSD produced no acute or durable objective effects on creativity, despite subjective reports of enhanced creativity. |
Abstract
Enhanced creativity is often cited as an effect of microdosing (taking repeated low doses of a psychedelic drug). There have been recent efforts to validate the reported effects of microdosing, however creativity remains a difficult construct to quantify. The current study aimed to assess microdosing's effects on creativity using a multimodal battery of tests as part of a randomised controlled trial of microdosing lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Eighty healthy adult males were given 10 µg doses of LSD or placebo every third day for six weeks (14 total doses). Creativity tasks were administered at a drug-free baseline session, at a first dosing session during the acute phase of the drug's effects, and in a drug-free final session following the six-week microdosing regimen. Creativity tasks were the Alternate Uses Test (AUT), Remote Associates Task (RAT), Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT), and an Everyday Problem-Solving Questionnaire (EPSQ). No effect of drug by time was found on the AUT, RAT, CAT, or EPSQ. Baseline vocabulary skill had a significant effect on AUT and RAT scores. Despite participants reporting feeling more creative on dose days, objective measurement found no acute or durable effects of the microdosing protocol on creativity. Possible explanations of these null findings are that laboratory testing conditions may negatively affect ability to detect naturalistic differences in creative performance, the tests available do not capture the facets of creativity that are anecdotally affected by microdosing, or that reported enhancements of creativity are placebo effects.