Thesis Defence: Motivation-based Subtypes of Psilocybin Microdosers

Ethan Klukas, supervised by Dr. Zach Walsh, will defend their thesis titled “Motivation-based Subtypes of Psilocybin Microdosers” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology.
An abstract for Ethan Klukas’s thesis is included below.
Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in-person defences.
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed a rise in microdosing psilocybin. Individuals who engage in this practice report diverse motivations for use which suggests heterogeneity among microdosers. However, research to date has taken a monolithic approach to the examination of microdosers which may overlook potentially important differences. To address this limitation, we aimed to identify and elucidate motivation-based subtypes using a large naturalistic sample of psilocybin microdosers. We used latent class analysis to identify motivation-based subtypes among 4,415 adults who reported microdosing psilocybin. We compared subtypes cross-sectionally using ANOVA and chi-square tests to examine current mental health status, psychosocial functioning, and microdosing practices. Three distinct subtypes of psilocybin microdosers emerged from the data: Mental Health Focused (n = 2059), Well-Being Focused (n = 1136), and Creativity and Learning Focused (n = 1220). We identified medium-to-large between-group differences in depression, anxiety, and stress across the subtypes, medium-sized differences in affect and satisfaction with life, and small-to-medium differences in self-reported mental health diagnoses and use of psychiatric medication (all p < .001). Microdosing quantities and frequency were equivalent across subtypes. The results of this study highlight heterogeneity in the population of psilocybin microdosers. As such, we suggest that psychological outcomes may differ depending on individuals’ motivational profile. Acknowledging these distinct subtypes may result in more accurate assessment of change in key outcome variables, potentially revealing larger effect sizes, that may be obscured when analyzing microdosers as a homogenous group. The findings from the present research can be used to design future studies that consider the real-world heterogeneity among psilocybin microdosers.