[3] The basic approach is to label a candidate drug using the radio isotope carbon-14,[4] then administer the compound to human volunteers at levels typically about 100 times lower than the proposed therapeutic dosage (from around 1 to 100 micrograms but not above).
AMS is routinely used in geochronology and archaeology,[6] but biological applications began appearing in 1990 mainly due to the work of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Psychedelic microdosing is the practice of using sub-threshold doses (microdoses) of serotonergic psychedelic drugs in an attempt to improve creativity, boost physical energy level, emotional balance, increase performance on problems-solving tasks and to treat anxiety, depression and addiction,[citation needed] though there is very little evidence supporting these purported effects as of 2019.
[12] Ten organizations from five different countries (United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, France, and Poland) will study various approaches to the basic AMS technique.
In 2017, Okour et al published the first example in literature of a termination of an oral drug based on IV microdose data.