Why Chronic Microdosing Might Break Your Heart

By Kelan Thomas, PharmD, MS, BCPS, BCPP for Chacruna

While there has been very promising evidence of safety and effectiveness for psychedelics after a few acute macrodoses in clinical trials, the risks and benefits of chronic microdosing still remain largely unknown.

There is no shortage of media hype surrounding microdosing psychedelics at the moment, but buyer beware because chronic use could literally end up breaking your heart. While there has been very promising evidence of safety and effectiveness for psychedelics after a few acute macrodoses in clinical trials, the risks and benefits of chronic microdosing still remain largely unknown.

As a board-certified psychiatric pharmacist, one of my primary responsibilities is to educate clients about psychotropic medications so they can evaluate the risks and benefits to make informed treatment decisions. After spending some time researching this topic in detail, I became concerned about the potential risk of valvular heart disease (VHD) due to chronic psychedelic-induced changes of heart valve cells via serotonin 2B receptor (5HT2B) activation.

I will outline my reasons for these concerns based on the limited evidence currently available.

Continue reading the original article here:

https://chacruna.net/why-chronic-microdosing-might-break-your-heart/

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Discussion, OpinionKelan ThomasPsilocybin, Microdosing