Zusammenfassung Ayahuasca ist ein stark psychoaktiver Trank des Amazonas-Regenwaldes, der zu einem florierenden Tourismus aus den industrialisierten Ländern ins ländliche Peru geführt hat. In einer teilnehmenden Beobachtung und qualitativen Befragung von Teilnehmern von traditionalisierten Ayahuasca-Seminaren im Regenwald werden Motive und subjektive Bedeutungen mittels qualitativer...
Ayahuasca is a traditional plant decoction containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and various β-carbolines including harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, which has been used ceremonially by Amazonian Indigenous groups for healing and spiritual purposes. Use of the brew has now spread far beyond its original context of consumption to North America, Europe, and Australia in neo-shamanic...
Abstract Background Ayahuasca's effects on symptoms of depression have generated considerable optimism. Clients frequently report more concern about some symptoms than others, and available treatments alter symptoms differentially. Few studies address the symptom specificity of this psychoactive brew. Aims We examined self-reported effects of ayahuasca on the individual symptoms of depression...
In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley described his trial of mescaline as "the most extraordinary and significant experience available to human beings this side of the Beatific Vision." His exegesis was preceded by the synthesis of the hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by Sandoz chemist Albert Hoffman in 1938 and was followed by Hoffman's extraction of psilocybin from Psilocybe...
Abstract Background The recognition of emotions in facial expressions (REFE) is a core aspect of social cognition. Previous studies with the serotonergic hallucinogens lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin showed that these drugs reduced the recognition of negative (fear) faces in healthy volunteers. This trial assessed the acute and prolonged effects of a single dose of ayahuasca on the...
Notions of visualism and individualism have long been employed to elucidate the contours of Western subjectivity. It is therefore not surprising to find the indigenous Amazonian shamanic brew ayahuasca being adopted by Australian neoshamanic practitioners as a medicine that provides personalized visions delivering unambiguous moral import. While this adoption represents a radically new style of...
European PsychiatryApril 1, 2021R. Pinilla, Carmen Rocamora Rodriguez, D. Batet-Sanchez et al.3 citations
Introduction Ayahusca has potential therapeutic beneffits. Objectives Expose the potential beneffits of ayahuasca from neuropharmacology and clinical existing evidence. Methods A literature review was carried out in the databases pubmed, clinical key and texts of scientific dissemination. Results There´s scientific literature about the potential therapeutic use of ayahuasca in dependencies,...
Introduction Psychedelics - including LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), psilocybin, DMT (N, N-dimethyltryptamine), ayahuasca and mescaline - have an ancient history across various civilizations. In 1950, after LSD’s discovery by Hofmann, psychedelics enjoyed a short-lived relationship with psychiatry, before prohibitive legislature emerging in response to the recreational use in the mid-1960s....
Ayahuasca has gained the attention of researchers over the past decade as psychedelic-assisted therapy for MDMA and psilocybin have progressed through FDA approved clinical trials. In spite of the increase in research, there are relatively few clinical studies of ayahuasca and little qualitative research on the therapeutic or healing uses of psychedelics in general. The present study included...
Abstract The present study examines the association between the ceremonial use of ayahuasca—a decoction combining the Banistereopsis caapi vine and N,N-Dimethyltryptamine-containing plants—and changes in personality traits as conceived by the Five-Factor model (FFM). We also examine the degree to which demographic characteristics, baseline personality, and acute post-ayahuasca experiences...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is among the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide, and it is associated with a reduced quality of life and enormous costs to health care systems. Available drug treatments show low-to-moderate response in most patients, with almost a third of patients being non-responders (treatment-resistant). Furthermore, most currently available medications need...
Abstract Ayahuasca is a plant concoction containing N,N -dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and certain β-carboline alkaloids from South America. Previous research in naturalistic settings has suggested that ingestion of ayahuasca can improve mental health and well-being; however, these studies were not placebo controlled and did not control for the possibility of expectation bias. This naturalistic...
The free online trading of herbal mixtures useful for various purposes facilitates the circulation of dangerous herbs or plant parts. This is the case, for example, of the illegal trade in seeds of Peganum harmala (Pgh), which contain alkaloids capable of inhibiting monoamine oxidase (MAO) and are therefore used in hallucinogenic preparations, such as the psychedelic drink ayahuasca. The...
Psychedelics or serotonergic hallucinogens are a group of substances that share the agonism of serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors as their main mechanism of action. Its main effects include changes in perception, cognitive process, and mood. Despite being used for centuries by different cultures in ritual contexts, these substances have currently aroused the interest of science and industry for...
Abstract Existing research demonstrates a positive connection between psychedelics and increased nature relatedness. Enhanced affective ties toward nature are widely framed as being built into the pharmakon itself, and the relevance of experiences remains little understood. This paper turns to neoshamanic ayahuasca ceremonies in Europe, exploring the way specialists and attendants refer to...
Background\nAyahuasca is a psychoactive Amazonian brew which has emerging data indicating that it has antidepressant and anxiolytic properties.\n\nMethods\nThis paper uses data from the Global Ayahuasca Project (GAP), which was undertaken across 2017-2020 and involved 11912 people, to examine the perceived effects of ayahuasca consumption on affective symptoms. The study focused on the...
Suicidality is a major public health concern with limited treatment options. Accordingly, there is a need for innovative interventions for suicidality. Preliminary evidence indicates that treatment with the psychedelic ayahuasca may lead to decreases in depressive symptoms among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, there remains limited understanding of whether ayahuasca...
This is a cartographic record that suggests ways to envisage the formation and expansion of the Santo Daime doctrine. From the daimist liturgy and the institutionalized practices in the Santo Daime / ICEFLU, also from their dissent, the narrative mapping the Marian subjectivities to ritualize the use of Marijuana was mapped, and how relations with Exu are conceived and ritualized. We pay...
Takiwasi is a therapeutic community for the treatment of Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) that combines traditional Amazonian medicine (TAM) with modern psychotherapy. One of the plant medicines from TAM used in this protocol is purgahuasca. It is a decoction of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi alone, whose use is traditional among the Awajún and other ethnic groups in Peru. The research began with...