Editorial: Psychoactive natural products: Potential in the treatment of brain diseases and strategies to improve delivery
Célia Cabral, Claudia Carbone, Pamela Maher, Miguel Castelo-Branco
Frontiers in Pharmacology October 3, 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2022.1032496 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Editorial Peer reviewed |
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| Key points | The editorial describes a special issue of four manuscripts on psychoactive natural products for brain disease, noting that common themes emerged. It reports that Kiraga et al. found a single ayahuasca ingestion in a ceremonial social setting was associated with improved subjective well-being, decentering, and emotion recognition versus baseline, lasting up to one week. |
Abstract
Psychoactive natural products: Potential in the treatment of brain diseases and strategies to improve delivery For this special issue, focusing on psychoactive natural products with therapeutic potential for the treatment of brain diseases, we have invited authors to contribute with research and review articles illustrating and stimulating the continuing effort in drug discovery and drug development using natural products as a source of bioactive molecules.From submissions, four high-quality manuscripts (3 research papers and 1 systematic review/metanalysis) were selected covering the above-mentioned topics.These articles covered both animal and human research with quite distinct methodological approaches.Interestingly some common themes emerge from these works.Kiraga et al. studied the persisting effects of Ayahuasca on empathy, creative thinking, decentering, personality, and well-Being.They evaluated the effects in volunteers attending ayahuasca ceremonies that were asked to complete a test battery at three separate occasions: baseline, the morning after, and 1 week after the ceremony.In total, 43 attendees (males = 22; females = 21) completed parts of the baseline assessment, 20 (males = 12; females = 8) completed assessments in the morning after the ceremony, and 19 (males = 14; females = 5) completed assessments at the 1-week follow-up.The study suggests that a single ingestion of ayahuasca in a social setting is associated with an enhancement in subjective well-being, an increased ability to take an objective and nonjudgmental stance towards the self (decentering), and the ability to correctly recognize emotions in others, compared to baseline, lasting up to 1-week post-ceremony.To