Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2023
Low doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) increase reward-related brain activity.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Safety of Psychedelic Microdosing on Psychological Outcomes in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.CNS drugs · 2026Pooled it
- The Use of Psychedelics in the Treatment of Adult ADHD: A Systematic and Mechanistic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelics in Treating Substance Use Disorders: A Review of Clinical Trials.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- The effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) on the Positive Valence Systems: A Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)-Informed Systematic Review.CNS drugs · 2023Pooled it
- Acute and post-acute neurobehavioral responses to lysergic acid diethylamide in healthy subjects: a randomized controlled study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Inter-individual variability in neural response to low doses of LSD.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Neural complexity is increased after low doses of LSD, but not moderate to high doses of oral THC or methamphetamine.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- LSD increases sleep duration the night after microdosing.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Greater subjective effects of a low dose of LSD in participants with depressed mood.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Modulation of long-term potentiation following microdoses of LSD captured by thalamo-cortical modelling in a randomised, controlled trial.BMC neuroscience · 2024Trial
- Effects of repeated low-dose LSD on neuropsychological functioning in adults with ADHD: a randomized placebo-controlled study.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Psychedelic therapy and postpartum depression: priorities and prospects.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Molecules, meaning, and physiology: disentangling the active ingredients of psychedelic therapeutics.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine diminishes connectivity between the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens: relevance to pathologies of mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Focus on Cognitive Enhancement: A Narrative Overview of Nootropics and "Smart Drug" Use and Misuse.Biology · 2025Review
- Disentangling the acute subjective effects of classic psychedelics from their enduring therapeutic properties.Psychopharmacology · 2025Review
- The Selective Serotonin 5‑HTACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Article
- The compulsive eating paradigm: can psychedelics help in treating obesity?Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Psychedelic Drugs in Mental Disorders: Current Clinical Scope and Deep Learning-Based Advanced Perspectives.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- The influence of stakeholder interests on safety outcome reporting in psychedelic research and implications for science communication.Trends in psychiatry and psychotherapy · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Renewed interest in classic psychedelics as treatments for psychiatric disorders warrants a deeper understanding of their neural mechanisms. Single, high doses of psychedelic drugs have shown promise in treating depressive disorders, perhaps by reversing deficits in reward processing in the brain. In addition, there are anecdotal reports that repeated ingestion of low doses of LSD, or "microdosing", improve mood, cognition, and feelings of wellbeing. However, the effects of low doses of classic psychedelics on reward processing have not been studied. The current study examined the effects of two single, low doses of LSD compared to placebo on measures of reward processing. Eighteen healthy adults completed three sessions in which they received placebo (LSD-0), 13 μg LSD (LSD-13) and 26 μg LSD (LSD-26) in a within-subject, double-blind design. Neural activity was recorded while participants completed the electrophysiological monetary incentive delay task. Event-related potentials were measured during feedback processing (Reward-Positivity: RewP, Feedback-P3: FB-P3, and Late-Positive Potential: LPP). Compared to placebo, LSD-13 increased RewP and LPP amplitudes for reward (vs. neutral) feedback, and LSD-13 and LSD-26 increased FB-P3 amplitudes for positive (vs. negative) feedback. These effects were unassociated with most subjective measures of drug effects. Thus, single, low doses of LSD (vs. placebo) increased three reward-related ERP components reflecting increased hedonic (RewP), motivational (FB-P3), and affective processing of feedback (LPP). These results constitute the first evidence that low doses of LSD increase reward-related brain activity in humans. These findings may have important implications for the treatment of depressive disorders.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.