Microdosing.nl is proud to present another new Microdosing Study. We have teamed up with Ioana Pop, Ph.D., Assistant professor Sociology of the Tilburg University. She developed a new Microdosing study (English), especially for students. (18+). This microdosing study has been approved by the Ethical Review Board at Tilburg University.

Our goal in this study is to investigate the effects of psychedelic substances just as they are used:

on a daily basis, by ordinary people, through the practice of microdosing.

Microdosing Study

Do you microdose psychedelic substances such as LSD, 1cP-LSD, 1P-LSD or psilocybin mushrooms or truffles?

Do you want to know how they affect you?

Do you want to contribute to research on the effect of microdosing?

Now you have an opportunity to participate in a study on microdosing among students.

The study consists of:

A unique tracking app is used for recording the answers from questionnaires.

Interviews on location. We will visit you or by skype.

Cognitive Tests performed using specialized tests provided by a recognized company and administered on the computer.

For your participation, you will receive:

a personal report about how your microdosing practice affects you

a small compensation in the form of a gift voucher of € 25,-

Are you interested in participation, do you know someone that is microdosing, or do you have more questions? Send us an email: i.a.pop@uvt.nl or j.dinkelacker@uvt.nl, info@microdosing.nl

Research in Motion!

At no point in time will psychedelic substances be distributed to any participants.!

The background of the project



Numerous studies conducted before the 1950s and during the past twenty years show that psychedelic substances such as MDMA, psilocybin, LSD and ayahuasca have big potential to alleviate suffering from psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. As scientific findings move into the mainstream due to a novel accessibility of such information, ordinary people have gotten inspired to use psychedelic substances to increase their well-being and cognitive performance, but also to open their minds, to see new perspectives, and to stimulate creativity.



One way of using psychedelic substances involves taking several days off to ingest large doses during ceremonies under guidance or with friends in natural settings. During these trips, many insights about oneself, the world, and the mind can be generated. Another way of using these substances, however, is to ingest doses that are so small that they do not compromise daily functioning at all. This practice of microdosing has gotten tremendously popular with programmers in Silicon Valley for instance, who aimed to increase their imagination and performance, creating many of the technological structures we know today.

Similar to how the accessibility of information has enabled people to engage in such practices, the technological advances of the 21 st century enable research that has never been possible before:

we can now schedule cognitive tests for participants from home, as well as send questionnaires to people’s smartphones whenever it is necessary, which increases the ecological validity, the applicability of scientific knowledge to our everyday lives, vastly.



Furthermore, since these substances share a rich history in many different cultures across the globe and the effects of the substances branch in many directions, important questions arise that need to be answered in detail. Why do people take these substances? What motivations drive them to use these substances? What do they aim to achieve? How did they come into contact with them? In order to answer these questions, questionnaires and cognitive tests are not sufficient. Interviews need to be conducted in which participants get the opportunity to elaborate on their use of psychedelic substances while being faced with scientific curiosity.

The research setup

Our goal in this study is to investigate the effects of psychedelic substances just as they are used:

on a daily basis, by ordinary people, through the practice of microdosing. We, therefore, aim to understand how microdosing affects our participants on a daily basis by sending them frequent questionnaires and conducting cognitive tests and further investigate their underlying motivations through personal interviews. For this, we want to encourage 20 students from any background, who already have experience in microdosing psychedelics, to allow us to invite them for a single interview of around 60 minutes, followed by a more intensive collection of data with the use of questionnaires and cognitive tests, during a four-week period in order to observe the effects microdosing has on them.

During the interview, we will explore their motivations and the effects that the practice of microdosing has had on their life. Our observation is that at this moment there is little that we know about the subjective experience with this practice and that the accounts in the media are highly polarized, between very positive to very negative. We aim to provide an impartial account of the experience of microdosing and enable the voices of those engaged in this practice to be heard. The cognitive tests and the questionnaires are scheduled in a number of days within a four-weeks period (more precisely, 13 days when cognitive performance is measured and 18 days when questionnaires are administered). The requirement to participate is to engage in microdosing.

“No psychoactive substances will be given out”



Thus, this study is an observational one, with the use of questionnaires and cognitive tests we will simply measure various constructs and simultaneously, we take advantage of the fact that the participants already microdose to determine whether we observe differences in these constructs between the days when a microdose is taken and the ulterior days. The participants do not have to change their schedule of microdosing in any way.

The questionnaires are administered through an app that allows them to fill in various surveys, multiple times a day, from the convenience of their own homes. The data collection is intensive (for instance, during the first week, the surveys that measure mood are triggered 5 times every day, each day, later they are triggered every other day or less), but it is needed in order to allow us to observe changes in time (and even throughout a day) and between the days when a microdose is taken and when not.

Similarly, the cognitive tests are scheduled sometimes simultaneous with the questionnaires and sometimes during different days. As a thank you gesture for participating in this project, we are able to offer a gift card valued € 25,- for each participant, and in addition, a personalized report based on the information that resulted from the questionnaire and cognitive testing. Therefore, by agreeing to participate, participants gain the opportunity to contribute to psychedelic science, as well as to get to know their own microdosing practice from a scientific perspective.

Ioana Pop, PhD Assistant professor E-mail: i.a.pop@uvt.nl , j.dinkelacker@uvt.nl

Hein, Microdosing.nl E-mail: info@microdosing.nl



Research team

Principal investigator:

Ioana Pop, PhD

Assistant professor

Tilburg University

Department of Sociology

Room S 810

Telephone: (013) 466 2190

E-mail: i.a.pop@uvt.nl

Junior researcher

Jannis Dinkelacker

Email: J.Dinkelacker@uvt.nl