Microdosing

Microdosing, or micro-dosing, is a technique for studying the behaviour of drugs in humans through the administration of doses so low (“sub-therapeutic”) they are unlikely to produce whole-body effects, but high enough to allow the cellular response to be studied. This is called a “Phase 0 study” and is usually conducted before clinical Phase I to predict whether a drug is viable for the next phase of testing. Human microdosing aims to reduce the resources spent on non-viable drugs and the amount of testing done on animals.

Less commonly, the term “microdosing” is also sometimes used to refer to precise dispensing of small amounts of a drug substance (e.g., a powder API) for a drug product (e.g., a capsule), and when the drug substance also happens to be liquid this can potentially overlap what is termed microdispensing. Wikipedia

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life

An excerpt from the new memoir, published by Knopf (Written by Ayelet Waldman)

Day 1

Microdose Day

Physical Sensations: Heightened awareness.

Mood: Excited. Nervous. Delighted.

Conflict: Who, me? Even the idea seems absurd.

Sleep: Hard time falling asleep. Woke up early.

Work: Astonishingly productive, lost track of time.

Pain: My shoulder—frozen for the past year and a half—is killing me.

Today I took my first microdose. My senses are ever-so-slightly heightened, a feeling all but unappreciable, so perhaps it’s psychosomatic, though that word carries little meaning when anything that might be happening to me right now has inevitably to do with the interaction of mind and body. I feel a tiny bit more aware, as if my consciousness is hovering at a slight remove, watching me tap the keys on my keyboard, rub my ankles together, sip a mouthful of tea and swallow it. The trees look prettier than usual; the jasmine smells more fragrant.

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