16 papers in the library · 37 citations · publishing 2022-2025
June 9, 2025 Mika Turkia preprint
Full book as a PDF. Contents: 1. Introduction2. Ayahuasca in the treatment of bipolar disorder with psychotic features3. Ayahuasca in the treatment of chronic childhood sexual abuse in a religious community4. Indigenous ayahuasca ceremonies in the European context5. Touch and play — ’spiritual attacks’ in ayahuasca ceremonies6. The clinical trial as a ritual
April 23, 2025 Mika Turkia preprint
This compilation focuses on success stories—cases of courage, innovation, and the application of knowledge and power in overcoming illness and suffering. It features thirteen ethnographic case studies that describe how people were able to alleviate or overcome serious issues including alcoholism, severe anxiety and depression, suicidal behavior, and psychotic disorders caused by ignorance,...
March 27, 2025 Mika Turkia preprint
This retrospective case study features a woman in her mid-50s who spent her childhood in a religious community plagued by sexual abuse of children. She was abused by her father for more than a decade. The church and her mother ignored her reports about it. In her early twenties, she enrolled herself in the Erhard Seminars Training program that destabilized her, inducing a first-onset psychosis,...
August 5, 2024 Mika Turkia preprint
Currently, documentation on the effects of psychedelics on psychosis appears scarce. In the present case, a higher-dose LSD experience during acute paranoid psychosis before the initiation of antipsychotics induced feelings of love, which resolved the majority of the symptoms of the paranoid psychosis in one session, leading the person to reconnect with his family and seek treatment in a...
June 7, 2024 Mika Turkia 1 citation preprint
5-MeO-DMT is a psychedelic substance with a short duration of action and intensive effects. Its therapeutic efficacy and practicality may significantly surpass those of classical psychedelics such as ayahuasca and LSD. This retrospective ethnographic inquiry features a woman in her mid-thirties who witnessed her mother's violent suicide and its bloody aftermath at the age of three. Before and...
June 7, 2024 Mika Turkia preprint
Ketamine is a well-known and widely available general anesthetic from the 1960s that, in sub-anesthetic doses, has been adopted in a limited manner for the treatment of acute suicidality and treatment-resistant depression. Its short onset time and short duration of action make it feasible for use at outpatient clinics. In the US, it has a long history of off-label use and was officially...
PsyArXiv November 7, 2023 Mika Turkia 2 citations preprint
Following advice received in a dream, a woman in her early thirties, suffering from depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders caused by complex trauma in her childhood, experimented with 'microdosing' or psycholytic dosing of Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) mushrooms. During a 3.5-month period with an intuition-based, gradually declining dosing scheme, her symptoms significantly decreased. No...
June 9, 2023 Mika Turkia 3 citations preprint
This article presents the case of a young woman in her mid-twenties with a history of depression since childhood. She lived with a mother who failed to take care of her. The patient cared for the emotional needs of the mother instead of the mother caring for the daughter's needs. Her father was mostly absent. Already around the age of thirteen, the patient was severely depressed and was...
June 9, 2023 Mika Turkia 2 citations preprint
This retrospective study presents the case of a young woman in her mid-twenties who suffered from insecurity and abandonment-related anxiety, which intensified after a breakup of her relationship. Her parents' alcoholism and schizophrenia, as well as emotional and physical violence, had been a part of her childhood, but they had appeared 'normal' to her. Her parents and relatives had not...
March 10, 2023 Mika Turkia 9 citations preprint
While a relatively large body of research exists on many aspects of psychedelic therapy, articles describing a complete, successful treatment process are rarely found. This article therefore presents a case of a woman in her early forties with early complex trauma due to domestic violence, sexual abuse and poverty in her childhood, resulting in approximately three decades of treatment resistant...
March 10, 2023 Mika Turkia 4 citations preprint
In medicine, psychedelics were initially considered as a tool for clinicians to understand psychotic states. Based on the presented case data, a reversal of that concept is proposed: psychedelics could be conceptualized as a tool for people chronically anxious and depressed since early childhood to understand ordinary states of mind (e.g. calmness, hopefulness, relaxation, and joy). The case...
March 10, 2023 Mika Turkia 1 citation preprint
In February 2023, Australia became the first country in the world to allow psychiatrists to prescribe 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This may have left interested clinicians looking for practical examples of the use of MDMA. In the 1950s and 1960s, psychedelics were successfully utilized in the treatment of alcoholism. This case study, the...
March 10, 2023 Mika Turkia 1 citation preprint
Ayahuasca is a plant-based brew of indigenous Amazonian origin. It has psychedelic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, cytotoxic, and anti-parasitic effects, which are primarily due to monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). This article describes the case of a woman in her late thirties with complex trauma due to severe, years-long sexual abuse in early...
March 10, 2023 Mika Turkia preprint
In recent psychedelic therapy research, the concept of 'mystical experience' has been highlighted, as in several studies it has been identified as a significant predictor of improved outcome. Many studies mentioning the concept, for example, reports of randomized clinical trials, typically do not provide detailed examples of such experiences, however. In order to make the concept easily...
Psychiatry Research Case Reports July 15, 2022 Mika Turkia 14 citations
This article describes a case of a teenager with early complex trauma due to chronic domestic violence. Cannabis use triggered auditory hallucinations, after which the teenager was diagnosed with an acute schizophrenia-like psychotic disorder. Antipsychotic medication did not fully resolve symptoms. Eventually the teenager chose to self-medicate with LSD in order to resolve a suicidal...
Mika Turkia preprint
This article describes a case of a 'spiritual attack' in the context of Amazonian ayahuasca ceremonies. These attacks are often assumed to be imaginary, and there is relatively little information available about them. Specifically, there appears to be no documentation about possible mechanisms of action for these attacks. Subjectively, they typically appear as context-dependent visions or...