Journal of Chromatography B
June 8, 2019
Rita C. Z. Souza, Flávia Da Silva Zandonadi, Donizete P. Freitas et al.
42 citations
Ayahuasca is a brew prepared from the water decoction of two Amazonian plants, which is legally used for religious, cultural or therapeutic activities. The potential use of ayahuasca as a natural or phytotherapeutic drug is directly linked to the action of its active compounds and their connection with the therapeutic efficacy of the beverage. In this context, the aim of the present study was...
Epilepsy & Behavior
June 7, 2019
Rafael G. Dos Santos, Jaime E. C. Hallak
58 citations
Ayahuasca is a botanical hallucinogenic preparation traditionally used for ritual and therapeutic purposes by native populations of the Northwestern Amazon. In the last decades, ayahuasca use has spread to Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa, and interest in the possible therapeutic uses of ayahuasca for treating anxiety and mood disorder and substance-use disorders has increased both...
Revista do Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro
June 6, 2019
Maicon Fecher, Elizabeth Pissolato
This paper approaches the relationship that has been built since 2000’s among ayahuasca Huni Kuin masters (Western Amazon) — singers (txanas) or shamans — and locals from Rio de Janeiro city that are interested in the set of knowledges mediated by that and other forest medicines. We briefly follow up the relationship between Huni Kuin indigenous people and ayahuasca religions in Acre 1990’s...
Frontiers in Psychology
June 4, 2019
Raíssa Nóbrega de Almeida, Ana Cecília de Menezes Galvão, Flávia Santos Da Silva et al.
173 citations
Serotonergic psychedelics are emerging as potential antidepressant therapeutic tools, as suggested in a recent randomized controlled trial with ayahuasca for treatment-resistant depression. Preclinical and clinical studies have suggested that serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels increase after treatment with serotoninergic antidepressants, but the exact role of BDNF as a...
Interdisciplinaria Revista de Psicología y Ciencias Afines
June 1, 2019
Ismael Apud
6 citations
La ayahuasca es una sustancia psicoactiva de origen amazónico, usada tradicionalmente con fines espirituales, médicos y religiosos. En la década de los ‘90 adquiere gran popularidad, tanto a través de las redes internacionales de espiritualidad y religiosidad, como en el denominado renacimiento de los estudios psicodélicos, donde se retoma la investigación y experimentación sobre los posibles...
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
June 1, 2019
Matthew D Clark
22 citations
In this article, the origins of the cult of the ritual drink known as soma/haoma are explored. Various shortcomings of the main botanical candidates that have so far been proposed for this so-called “nectar of immortality” are assessed. Attention is brought to a variety of plants identified as soma/haoma in ancient Asian literature. Some of these plants are included in complex formulas and are...
Natural Products and Bioprospecting
May 27, 2019
Edgar Antonio Estrella-Parra, Julio Cesar Almanza-Pérez, Francisco Javier Alarcón-aguilar
57 citations
Ayahuasca (caapi, yajé), is a psychoactive brew from the Amazon Basin region of South America traditionally considered a "master plant." It is prepared as a decoction from Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, which it is thought that it stimulates creative thinking and visual creativity. Native healers of the Orinoco and Amazon basins have used traditionally ayahuasca as a healing tool...
Drugs Education Prevention and Policy
May 7, 2019
Marc Aixalà, Genís Ona, Òscar Parés et al.
16 citations
In recent years, the use of natural psychoactive drugs (NPDs) has grown rapidly. They are classified as new psychoactive substances (NPSs), despite the reality that they have been used for centuries. We are lacking information regarding patterns of use or characteristics of users, but some evidence suggests that NPDs substantially differ from NPSs in terms of both their safety profile and...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
April 25, 2019
Alexandra Vsl Rodrigues, Francisco Almeida, Maria Augusta Vieira‐coelho
30 citations
N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an indole alkaloid produced by a number of plants and animals, including humans. Its psychoactive effects were first described in 1956 by Stephen Szára, but have been exploited for centuries by South American indigenous populations in the form of ayahuasca. In the present review, we assess the state of the art regarding a putative role for endogenous DMT and...
PLoS One
April 23, 2019
Roland R. Griffiths, Ethan Hurwitz, Alan K. Davis et al.
249 citations
Naturally occurring and psychedelic drug-occasioned experiences interpreted as personal encounters with God are well described but have not been systematically compared. In this study, five groups of individuals participated in an online survey with detailed questions characterizing the subjective phenomena, interpretation, and persisting changes attributed to their single most memorable God...
Journal of Marketing Management
April 16, 2019
Andrew Kristoffer Dean
13 citations
This ethnographic study increases our understanding of Westerners seeking genuine fairy tale experiences of magic, transformation and enchantment within South American psychedelic ayahuasca tourism. Examining 63 tourists, this study shows how vision-based spirit sensegivers facilitate individuals in exorcising demons, to make sense of themselves as spiritual beings within an enchanted universe....
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
March 29, 2019
Tom Wolff, Simon Ruffell, Nigel Netzband et al.
41 citations
Aims This heuristic study reports observations on the phenomenology of ayahuasca experiences of nine foreign tourist participants of an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. Methods Narrative interviews, reflecting individual experiences after ayahuasca “night ceremony,” have been analyzed by qualitative content analysis using a data-driven strategy in order to extract themes and categories inherent in...
February 27, 2019
Matheus Arts, Linda de Jonge, S. Petrykiv
1 citation
Background: Ayahuasca, also called yagu00e9, is a psychoactive potion of various plant infusions consisting of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, containing beta-carbolines, and the leaves of the N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-containing Psychotria viridis, which acts as a potent agonist to 5-HT2a receptors. Drinking ayahuasca has recently become very popular in shamanistic u2018healing...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
February 7, 2019
Genís Ona, Maja Kohek, Tomàs Massaguer et al.
76 citations
Assessing the health status of ayahuasca users has been challenging due to the limitations involved in randomized clinical trials and psychometric approaches. The main objective of this study is the implementation of an approach based on public health indicators. We developed a self-administered questionnaire that was administered to long-term ayahuasca users around Spain. The questionnaire was...
Entropy
January 30, 2019
Aline Viol, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Heloisa Onias et al.
37 citations
With the aim of further advancing the understanding of the human brain’s functional connectivity, we propose a network metric which we term the geodesic entropy. This metric quantifies the Shannon entropy of the distance distribution to a specific node from all other nodes. It allows to characterize the influence exerted on a specific node considering statistics of the overall network...
CAMPOS - Revista de Antropologia Social
January 10, 2019
Domingos Bueno Da Silva
3 citations
Texto informativo sobre a conferência indígena da Ayahuasca realizada no Acre.
International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research
January 2, 2019
Jan M. Keppel Hesselink, Jan M. Keppel Hesselink
Since the 2nd part of last century neo-shamanic rituals using mind-altering extracts from plants or animals have become increasingly popular in Europe and the USA. The first rituals coming to the west were based on drinking a special Amazonian tea, Ayahuasca, based on 2 different plants, with active compounds belonging to the class of the beta-carbolines (harmala alkaloids) and tryptamines. The...
2019
Maha N. Mian
Ayahuasca, a plant-based hallucinogen that serves as a spiritual medicine in South America, has improved depression in at least one placebo-controlled clinical trial. Case studies suggest that dramatic behavioral changes often follow the Ayahuasca ceremony, but most explanations of antidepressant effects focus on observed changes in mindfulness. The present study investigated if both...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
2019
Ilana Berlowitz, Heinrich Walt, Christian Ghasarian et al.
70 citations
Chronic illness management today commonly involves alternative medicines. Substance use disorder (SUD), as a chronic psychosomatic illness, might benefit from a similar approach. The accredited Takiwasi Center offers such an SUD treatment program involving Amazonian medicine combined with psychotherapy. The current study assessed this integrative program's short-term therapeutic effects. We...
2019
Brianna R. Altman
Given the growing popularity of Ayahuasca, we sought to identify why people might use this psychoactive brew rather than classic hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin. Experienced users (N=139) completed an online survey about their use of hallucinogens, including ayahuasca, how their ayahuasca experiences differed from those with other hallucinogens, and their willingness to use ayahuasca over...