-IS AYAHUASCA TOXIC?
«That ayahuasca is a psychoactive substance does not imply that the doses usually ingested in rituals are doses that produce organic or brain toxicity. In this sense, and in accordance with toxicological science, a minimum psychoactive dose should not be equated with a toxic dose, if we understand toxicity as the ability of a substance to, upon coming into contact with the body, produce an effect through its chemical action. harmful (Baños and Farré, 2002). In relation to the effects of ayahuasca on the body, studies
carried out with volunteers, both in laboratory conditions (Riba, 2003; dos Santos, 2011) and in natural contexts (McKenna, 2004), show that ayahuasca is, physiologically, quite safe. The impact of ayahuasca on the cardiovascular system is minimal, producing slight increases in blood pressure and blood pressure without clinical implications.
heart rate (Riba et al., 2001, 2003; dos Santos et al., 2012).
It has also been seen that
transiently increases the concentrations of the hormones prolactin, cortisol, and hormone
growth (dos Santos et al., 2011, 2012) and, in terms of the immune system, it decreases in a time-dependent manner the subpopulations of CD4 and CD3 lymphocytes and increases those of
NK or natural killers (dos Santos et al., 2011, 2012). These transient physiological modifications do not seem to trigger negative effects: in studies in which general blood tests have been performed before and after the volunteers' participation in the
Clinical trials have not found any alterations in hematological functions.
and biochemical (Riba et al., 2001; Riba and Barbanoj, 2005). In a recent study that evaluated liver function in regular ayahuasca users (twice a month or more,
for at least one year) no alterations in liver function or markers were found
(Mello et al., 2019).
- IS AYAHUASCA ADDICTIVE?
«Regarding its potential for abuse, in neuroimaging studies with healthy volunteers it has been observed that ayahuasca does not activate brain areas related to the brain's reward systems, which are the brain centers that activate drugs with abuse potential.
abuse such as methamphetamine, cocaine or alcohol. Furthermore, in this sense, existing evidence indicates that ayahuasca can represent a useful tool in the treatment of addictions (Bouso and Riba, 2014).
- CAN IT CAUSE OVERDOSE?
«It has also been shown in clinical trials that ayahuasca does not produce tolerance (dos Santos et al., 2012), so it is not necessary to increase the doses to achieve the desired effects, something that, added, as has already been said, to the emetic effects (vomiting), it protects users from suffering from overdose."
- ARE THERE DETOXICATION AND ADDICTION TREATMENT CLINICS THAT USE AYAHUASCA AS MEDICINE?
«In fact, there are several clinics in South America specialized in the treatment of drug addictions using ayahuasca, the best known of which is Takiwasi, in Peru (Mabit,2007).
In a recent study carried out with patients with major depression, it has been found that ayahuasca activates a brain area involved in reward mechanisms called the nucleus accumbens (Sanches et al., 2016), an effect that, according to the authors of the study, is exclusive for patients with depression and contributes to explaining the antidepressant effect of ayahuasca in patients with major depression. One of the first studies carried out on humans showed how many participants in ritual ayahuasca sessions of the Unión del Vegetal (UDV) church had abandoned the
consumption of alcohol and other drugs, such as cocaine, as a consequence of their participation in rituals (Grob et al., 1996). This finding has been found again in subsequent studies
with members of the Santo Daime church of Oregon, USA (Halpern et al., 2008). A study with a very large sample, in which 127 ayahuasca users were evaluated in traditional contexts, comparing them with 115 controls, found no evidence of addiction criteria according to the biopsychosocial indicators evaluated with the ASI scale (addiction severity index).
addiction; the standard scale for assessing drug addiction), nor did it find that the continued use of ayahuasca was associated with the harmful biopsychosocial effects caused by the
drugs of abuse. What's more, the groups of ayahuasca users consumed less alcohol and other drugs than the control subjects and these better scores in the biopsychosocial indicators
of addiction were replicated a year later, confirming the consistency of the results (Fábregas et al., 2010).
In recent years, several studies have been published, both biomedical and ethnographic, evaluating the anti-addictive properties of ayahuasca. One study evaluated the effectiveness of a
program in Peru that uses traditional Amazonian medicine, including ayahuasca, with patients dependent on multiple substances (mainly cannabis, alcohol and cocaine), and
found a significant decrease in indicators of addiction severity and an increase in quality of life (Berlowitz et al., 2019). Another study found a lower incidence
of alcohol and tobacco abuse disorders among religious ayahuasca users compared to the general population (Barbosa et al., 2018). In an international survey of
In which 96.901 users of different drugs responded, ayahuasca users (500 people) consumed less alcohol than users of other psychedelics (such as LSD or
psilocybin) and reported having the best quality of life of the entire sample (Lawn et al., 2017). Other recent studies showed evidence of effectiveness in the treatment of drug dependence in
different cultural populations and treatment environments (Fernández et al., 2015; Loizaga Velder and Verres, 2014; Thomas et al., 2013). Two recent ethnographic studies focused on
studying the anti-addictive properties of ayahuasca also found recovery processes in subjects as a consequence of participating in ayahuasca ceremonies (Talin and Sanabria, 2017; Apud and Romaní, 2017).»
- DOES AYAHUASCA SERVE AS A PREVENTION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADDICTIONS IN ADULT LIFE?
«A study, carried out with adolescents belonging to the Brazilian ayahuasca church Unión del Vegetal (UDV), also found that they consumed significantly less alcohol than control subjects, concluding that ayahuasca, far from producing abuse or dependence, for these adolescents constituted a protection factor against alcohol consumption
(Doering-Silveira et al., 2005a)»
- WHY CAN AYAHUASCA EXPERIENCES OPTIMIZE OUR MENTAL HEALTH? CAN IT BE USED AS A SELF-CARE TOOL LIKE DOING SPORTS OR PRACTICING MEDITATION?
«The therapeutic properties of ayahuasca are probably due to a combination of its psychoactive effect – and the associated subjective experiences – with its pharmacological actions. Activates brain areas related to memory about events
personal (called episodic memory) and with the awareness of emotions and internal sensations (Riba et al., 2006; de Araujo et al., 2011). From a psychological perspective, several recent studies showed that the psychotherapeutic potentials of ayahuasca could be related to its ability to increase what in clinical psychology is called "decentering" (Franquesa et al., 2018; Soler et al., 2016), or the ability to observe thoughts and emotions as transient events of the mind without becoming trapped by them,
as well as enhancing mindfulness and cognitive flexibility capabilities (Murphy-Beiner and Soar,
2020; Sampedro et al., 2017; Soler et al., 2018). These processes are considered important in clinical psychology, since it is estimated that they are responsible for—and therefore explain—the
psychotherapeutic results.
If ayahuasca has no recreational potential or potential for abuse, there must be other reasons why people use it. Personality studies carried out with populations
Brazilian and Spanish ayahuasca users have not found that they achieve higher scores on a scale known as "novelty seeking" (Grob et al., 1996;
Bouso et al., 2012; Bouso et al., 2015), which is a personality trait in which users of drugs of abuse usually score high. However, users do get higher scores.
higher than the non-user population in another personality trait called “self-transcendence” (Bouso et al., 2012; Bouso et al., 2015), which is the tendency to harbor a
transcendent concept of life, not necessarily linked to any religious affiliation. These personality studies have found, as a whole, that people who use
They do ayahuasca for reasons that have to do with personal development, the search for psychological well-being and a better adaptation to the world. In fact, these studies have found that they are people who are perfectly adapted and integrated into their social environments,
work and family, who use ayahuasca as a tool for personal and spiritual improvement, yielding results similar to those of people who practice meditation or other healing techniques.
personal development and well-being (Soler et al., 2016; Palhano-Fontes, 2015).
-WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS
AND MENTAL ILLNESSES
CAN YOU HELP HEAL?
«There are some studies that have explored the psychotherapeutic potential of ayahuasca in clinical populations. The strongest evidence is shown in patients with major depression
resistant to treatment. A recent study reported antidepressant effects of ayahuasca in patients with major depression, effects that were maintained for 21 days after the administration of a single dose (Osório et al., 2015; Sanches et al., 2016). This therapeutic effect was associated with brain changes measured with neuroimaging techniques, thus providing an objective demonstration of therapeutic change (Sanches et al., 2016). Other
More recent study confirmed the antidepressant effect of a single dose of ayahuasca in a placebo-controlled clinical trial (Palhano-Fontes et al., 2017). That clinical trial also found a decrease in suicidal ideation in the ayahuasca group compared to the placebo group (Zeifman et al., 2019), a result that has also been found in another open study (Zeifman et al., 2020). Cortisol was also evaluated—which
can be considered a biological marker for the reduction of depression and suicidal ideation—showing levels similar to those of normal subjects after treatment with ayahuasca.
(Galvão et al., 2018). Ayahuasca also increases the levels of neurotrophic factors (mainly brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF), which are associated with
neuroplasticity and antidepressant effects, among others (de Almeida et al., 2019).
The psychotherapeutic potential of ayahuasca has also been investigated for the treatment of other psychological disorders. Two studies have shown consistently positive results when
evaluate the use of ayahuasca in grief therapy (González et al., 2019, 2020). Furthermore, one of them showed that these beneficial effects were maintained after a year of follow-up.
(González et al., 2020). Likewise, positive results have been found in two preliminary studies in patients with eating disorders (Lafrance et al., 2017; Renelli et al., 2018).
Although research on the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca is still an incipient phenomenon, several authors propose that this concoction could also be useful.
for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Nielson and Megler, 2013) and personality disorders (Domínguez-Clavé et al., 2019), as well as for the treatment of
antisocial behavior, among other disorders typical of our civilization (Frecksa et al., 2016), including the improvement of symptoms in some serious physical conditions, such as
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (ALSUntangled Group, 2017).»
DOES IT HAVE SIDE EFFECTS?
The main side effect induced by ayahuasca is nausea and vomiting (Callaway et al., 1999; Riba et al., 2001; Riba, 2003; Riba and Barbanoj, 2005; dos Santos, 2011; dos Santos et al., 2012) .
The action of ayahuasca on vomiting is due, first, to the particular organoleptic properties of the drink and, secondly, to its serotonergic action (Callaway et al.,
1999). In any case, it is not an adverse reaction considered important by the participants in the sessions, but rather it is considered as a potential effect.
therapeutic called “the purge” in traditional Amazonian medicines (Luna, 1986, 2011), or “cleansing” in the context of Brazilian ayahuasca religions (Labate, 2004).
The "purge", in contexts of traditional use, is understood as a physical cleansing
and psychological of the internal conflicts that may afflict the participant and is considered an essential part of the therapeutic benefits (Luna, 1986, 2011). The emetic effects of ayahuasca, in fact, constitute one of the main reasons why ayahuasca does not have potential recreational use.
Finally, two recently published studies have evaluated the adverse effects profile of ayahuasca in naturalistic contexts. First, Durante et al. (2020) reported that
The most frequent adverse effects in a sample of 614 people consisted of gastrointestinal symptoms, as noted above. However, despite being considered adverse events from a medical point of view, these effects are actually desired by users, who consider this process as a necessary purge.
Surprisingly, using prescription medication or having a history of a psychiatric diagnosis were not associated with more adverse events. There was also recorded a
greater frequency of adverse effects such as tachycardia, dizziness or tremors in the subsample (of fifty people) that had some psychiatric diagnosis (mainly,
depression and anxiety).
The study published by Gómez-Sousa et al. (2021), focused on acute adverse reactions recorded in a ceremonial context and in people taking
ayahuasca for the first time, found a total of seven cases in a sample of forty people (17,5%). Four of the seven subjects met psychiatric diagnostic criteria before
to go to take ayahuasca. The authors highlighted the fact that, even after suffering acute adverse events, the subjects did not develop psychiatric symptoms or
experienced long-term consequences. On the contrary, positive effects were recorded, such as a reduction in criteria for the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders (Gómez-Sousa et al.,
2021). Studies of medium and long-term effects have also been carried out in which no neuropsychological or psychopathological alterations derived from continued consumption of ayahuasca have been evidenced. A prospective study conducted with people who took the concoction for the first time found improvements in measures of mental health and reduction in physical pain six months
after starting the ritual consumption of ayahuasca (Barbosa et al., 2005, 2009).
Other studies have found lower rates of psychopathology and greater psychosocial well-being in users
habitual ayahuasca (Bouso et al., 2012; Halpern et al., 2008) and three other studies have not found neuropsychological alterations, evaluated through cognitive performance tests
in regular ayahuasca users (Grob et al., 1996; Barbosa et al., 2016; Bouso et al., 2012; Bouso et al., 2015). One of these studies evaluated 127 ayahuasca users with a history
of consumption for a minimum of fifteen years and compared them with 115 controls, finding better
scores on psychopathological tests and on some of the neuropsychological tests,
results that were consistent in each of the two evaluations, separated by one year, that were carried out on the subjects (Bouso et al., 2012). Studies with Brazilian adolescents
Members of the UDV church have not found neuropsychological alterations or
psychiatric disorders associated with the ritual consumption of ayahuasca (da Silveira et al., 2005; Doering-Silveira et al., 2005b).
Finally, a recent neuroimaging study with Spanish ayahuasca users belonging to the Santo Daime church, with a minimum consumption of ayahuasca fifty times in the last two years, found differences in the thickness of the cerebral cortex of the
ayahuasca users compared to controls. These differences in cortical thickness only correlated with the personality variable called "self-transcendence", indicating that it is
It is possible that ayahuasca produces changes in the brain that manifest themselves in a greater spiritual inclination (Bouso et al., 2015). The ayahuasca users in this study
scored the same as their non-user controls in psychopathological and neuropsychological performance tests, which proves that this structural change in the brain as a consequence
The probability of ritual consumption of ayahuasca is not related to brain toxicity, but rather translates into changes in personality that may simply be reflecting a way of being.
"different", not necessarily pathological, as numerous previously cited studies have also shown (Grob et al., 1996; Barbosa et al., 2009, 2016; Bouso et al., 2012; da Silveira
et al., 2005; Doering-Silveira et al., 2005b; Halpern et al., 2008).
Brain modifications
They also occur after training and practicing numerous activities, such as learning music, a normal phenomenon that occurs in our brain continuously over time.
throughout life and is known as brain plasticity.
- CAN THERE BE PSYCHOTIC OUTBREAKS? ARE THERE PEOPLE WHO HAVE “STAYED ON THE JOURNEY”, “TOUCHED” OR CRAZY FOREVER AFTER ONE SHOT?
«Psychotic outbreaks sometimes function as defense mechanisms against real anguish that ayahuasca can lead you to go through, for example, from some childhood episode. They are unusual but they are not due to the fact that ayahuasca has a psychosystogenic component but rather as part of a mechanism of escape from the psyche that must be accompanied by reversal so that the person goes through it, embracing it and integrating a new way of living what affects them. It is important to take care of the person so that they do not harm themselves or others at these times. These cases subside within a few hours. There are no reported cases of chronic psychosis due to ayahuasca.
Some side effects have been described after the administration of ayahuasca in laboratory contexts, although they have always been specific and isolated cases, which have resolved without the need for any intervention (Riba and Barbanoj, 2005).
Some cases of the appearance of psychiatric effects in contexts of ritual use have also been documented, although their occurrence is rare (Lima and Tófoli, 2011; dos Santos and Strassman, 2011) and is below the prevalence of the appearance of psychiatric problems. for the general population.
In any case, this suggests that ayahuasca is, in principle, contraindicated for people with psychiatric disorders, especially those individuals prone to psychosis.
- DOES AYAHUASCA DESTROY NEURONS
OR ON THE CONTRARY DOES IT PRODUCE NEUROGENESIS, NEUROPROTECTION AND BRAIN NEUROPLASTICITY?
«In that sense, there have been
several studies evaluating in vitro the potential neuroprotective properties of ayahuasca components. In one of those studies, harmine induced proliferation in human neural stem cells (Dakic et al., 2016) and in another study harmine, harmaline and
tetrahydroharmine, the three main constituents of B. caapi, were shown to stimulate
adult neurogenesis (Morales-García et al., 2017). In fact, at the end of the 1920s, both Louis Lewin and Kurt Beringer already reported the promising effects of harmine for the
treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) and the potential role of B. caapi in the treatment of PD and other neurodegenerative diseases has recently been reviewed.
(Djamshidian et al., 2015; Fisher et al., 2018). On the other hand, two independent studies have also shown that DMT produces neurogenesis and neuroprotection both in cell cultures (Berthoux et al., 2019) and in animals (Morales-García et al., 2020).
In short, ayahuasca
"It is showing promising results not only to treat psychological conditions, but also to act as a neuroprotectant and to promote neurogenesis."
- HAVE PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE OF TAKING AYAHUASCA?
«Based on the published information, and on some occasions completing with
interviews and unpublished documents, acceptable hypotheses can be formulated in the majority of the 58 cases found. It is worth emphasizing that to date no toxicological analysis or forensic examination has determined that the consumption of ayahuasca caused death due to acute intoxication. «
(Carlos Suárez Álvarez, 2023)
Full report: https://www.iceers.org/es/examinando-muertes-ayahuasca/)
IS AYAHUASCA A DANGER TO PUBLIC HEALTH OR CAN ITS MEDICAL AND NON-MEDICAL USES BE INTEGRATED INTO OUR WESTERN SOCIETIES?
«In a recent study conducted in Spain (Oña et al., 2019), 380 regular attendees of ayahuasca ceremonies were interviewed face-to-face using public health indicators, along with indicators of community ties, stress coping strategies, values. and psychosocial well-being. The results were compared with normative data from the general Spanish population. Regular ayahuasca use was associated with greater positive health perception and a healthy lifestyle, among other outcomes. 56% of the sample reported reducing their use of prescription medications since becoming involved in ayahuasca ceremonies. Participants who had used ayahuasca more than one hundred times scored higher on measures of personal values. The main conclusion of this study suggests that a respectful and controlled use of ayahuasca
taken in community settings can be incorporated into modern society with public health benefits.
"This new approach, based on the use of health indicators that were not used in previous ayahuasca studies, offers relevant information on the impact of long-term exposure to ayahuasca on public health."
-Information obtained from the ICEERS technical report published in 2021 and signed by 12 doctors and supported by a robust medical and scientific bibliography:
https://www.iceers.org/es/informe-tecnico-sobre-ayahuasca/perfil-seguridad-ayahuasca/
A comment
It is interesting to know the properties of ayahuasca
I know its benefits, I have taken it.