Recently, the medical community has exhibited a significant amount of interest in

psychedelics as a treatment. The discussion of this paper is to analyze survey results from 1102
respondents who reported information about their psychedelic experiences and their
correlation with their mental and substance use disorder. While other variables may have been
responsible, forty-four percent of respondents reported feeling improved “mental health” after
ingesting microdoses of these drugs. The author of this study addresses that this studies’ results
suggest much promise for psychedelic treatment. Despite the rise in the research of this field,
various limitations in its clinical and social aspects are still present and need to be studied. 
This paper presents a high level of credibility, as it possesses critical components of
proper research: an adequate research question, sample, measurements of criteria, control
over confounding variables,  analysis of data, and ethics. Its proposed research question
appropriately informs the reader of the aims held by the researchers. Alongside an appropriate
question, the sample of this study provides a trustworthy conclusion. This can be attributed to
its adequate size and process of recruitment. However, there is room for improvement
regarding the randomization of selections; the methods of baseline recruitment may be biased,
as the researches chose to reach out to communities previously involved in the psychedelic
communities. There also was a lack of control over confounding variables, as the sample
included participants with many various sociodemographics. Although this research design
includes variables that can be bettered, it can be considered to be credible. This is because it
still maintained a clear approach to assessing results. With having a method to measure criteria
numerically, the results were able to be easily assessed. The design of the research also shows
to be ethical. The recruitment for the sample was a voluntary process, where participants had
joined at their own will. Alongside this, the research was designed to avoid any unethical
processes. Due to the presence of these core qualities, this paper provides a trustworthy
conclusion.
While the results done from the study discussed in this paper are promising and reliable,
there are many more aspects of this field to be addressed and studied. With the purpose of
gaining more knowledge on the effect of psychedelics on mental or substance use disorder,
various approaches can be taken in the future. A future study may include limiting the
respondents to a certain gender and age. By limiting the amount of confounding variables in a
future study, a more dependable conclusion can be made.

 
Amanda N, Jungaberie H, Klein M, Lea T, Schecke H, and Scherbaum N (2020) Perceived
outcomes of psychedelic microdosing as self-managed therapies for mental and substance use
disorders. Psychopharmacology 237, 1521–1532 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-
020-05477-0