OPEN Foundation

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Ayahuasca

It's Tea Time: Interference of Ayahuasca Brew on Discriminative Learning in Zebrafish

August 27, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , , , , ,

Abstract

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew traditionally used in shamanistic and vegetalistic rituals and has recently received lot of attention due to potential cognitive benefits. Ayahuasca effects are caused by the synergistic interaction of β-carbolines (harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroarmine) contained in Banisteriopsis caapi stalks combined with the N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) from Psychotria viridis leaves, a potent agonist to serotonin (5-HT) receptors. The present study approaches the effects of chronic and acute exposure to two Ayahuasca concentrations (0.1 and 0.5 ml/L) on the cognitive ability to discriminate objects in a one-trial learning task in zebrafish. Based on the combination of concentrations and exposure regimens, we divided adult zebrafish in five treatment groups: acute 0.1 and 0.5 ml/L, chronic 0.1 and 0.5 ml/L, and control 0.0 (n = 20 for each group). Then we tested them in a memory task of object discrimination. Acute Ayahuasca exposed groups performed similarly to the control group, however chronically treated fish (13 days) presented both impaired discriminative performance and locomotor alterations. Overall, these results indicate that Ayahuasca is a potent psychoactive drug that, in chronic exposure, negatively affects mnemonic parameters in zebrafish. In single exposure it does not affects cognitive performance, but the higher concentration (0.5) affected locomotion. Moreover, we reinforce the importance of the zebrafish for behavioral pharmacological studies of drug screening, in special to psychedelic drug research.

Eduardo-da-Silva, P., Lobao-Soares, B., Amarilha, H., Pinheiro-da-Silva, J., Silva, P. F., & Luchiari, A. C. (2018). It’s tea time: Interference of Ayahuasca brew on discriminative learning in zebrafish. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 12, 190., 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00190

Link to full text

Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of serotonergic psychedelics for the management of mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders: a systematic review of systematic reviews

August 13, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Depressive Disorders, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , , ,

Abstract

Mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in the population. Although several pharmacological treatments are available, they are not effective for a significant proportion of patients and are associated with several adverse reactions. Therefore, new treatments should be explored. Recent studies suggest that serotonergic hallucinogens/psychedelics including ayahuasca, psilocybin, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) have anxiolytic, antidepressive, and antiaddictive effects. Areas Covered: A systematic review of systematic reviews assessing the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of serotonergic hallucinogens/psychedelic was performed using the PubMed data base until 11 April 2018. Systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis were analyzed, but only reviews that described at least one randomized controlled trial (RCT) were included. Expert Commentary: Psilocybin and LSD reduced anxiety and depression in cancer patients and symptoms of alcohol and tobacco dependence, and ayahuasca reduced depression symptoms in treatment-resistant depression. Although the results are promising, several studies were open label, and only few were RCTs, and most had small sample sizes and a short duration. Single or few doses of these drugs seem to be well tolerated, but long-term studies are lacking. New RCTs with bigger samples and longer duration are needed to replicate these findings.

dos Santos, R. G., Bouso, J. C., Alcázar-Córcoles, M. Á., & Hallak, J. E. (2018). Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of serotonergic psychedelics for the management of mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders: A systematic review of systematic reviews. Expert review of clinical pharmacology, 11(9), 889-902., 10.1080/17512433.2018.1511424
Link to full text

Sub-acute and long-term effects of ayahuasca on affect and cognitive thinking style and their association with ego dissolution

August 13, 2018 / Anxiety Disorders / PTSD, Ayahuasca, Depressive Disorders, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , , , , , ,

Abstract

Rationale

Ayahuasca is a psychotropic plant tea from South America used for religious purposes by indigenous people of the Amazon. Increasing evidence indicates that ayahuasca may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of mental health disorders and can enhance mindfulness-related capacities. Most research so far has focused on acute and sub-acute effects of ayahuasca on mental health-related parameters and less on long-term effects.

Objectives

The present study aimed to assess sub-acute and long-term effects of ayahuasca on well-being and cognitive thinking style. The second objective was to assess whether sub-acute and long-term effects of ayahuasca depend on the degree of ego dissolution that was experienced after consumption of ayahuasca.

Results

Ayahuasca ceremony attendants (N = 57) in the Netherlands and Colombia were assessed before, the day after, and 4 weeks following the ritual. Relative to baseline, ratings of depression and stress significantly decreased after the ayahuasca ceremony and these changes persisted for 4 weeks. Likewise, convergent thinking improved post-ayahuasca ceremony up until the 4 weeks follow-up. Satisfaction with life and several aspects of mindfulness increased the day after the ceremony, but these changes failed to reach significance 4 weeks after. Changes in affect, satisfaction with life, and mindfulness were significantly correlated to the level of ego dissolution experienced during the ayahuasca ceremony and were unrelated to previous experience with ayahuasca.

Conclusion

It is concluded that ayahuasca produces sub-acute and long-term improvements in affect and cognitive thinking style in non-pathological users. These data highlight the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca in the treatment of mental health disorders, such as depression.

Uthaug, M. V., van Oorsouw, K., Kuypers, K. P. C., van Boxtel, M., Broers, N. J., Mason, N. L., … & Ramaekers, J. G. (2018). Sub-acute and long-term effects of ayahuasca on affect and cognitive thinking style and their association with ego dissolution. Psychopharmacology, 235(10), 2979-2989., 10.1007/s00213-018-4988-3
Link to full text

Psychedelics and hypnosis: Commonalities and therapeutic implications

June 25, 2018 / Ayahuasca, LSD, Mescaline / Cacti, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Recent research on psychedelics and hypnosis demonstrates the value of both methods in the treatment of a range of psychopathologies with overlapping applications and neurophenomenological features. The potential of harnessing the power of suggestion to influence the phenomenological response to psychedelics toward more therapeutic action has remained unexplored in recent research and thereby warrants empirical attention.
AIMS:
Here we aim to elucidate the phenomenological and neurophysiological similarities and dissimilarities between psychedelic states and hypnosis in order to revisit how contemporary knowledge may inform their conjunct usage in psychotherapy.
METHODS:
We review recent advances in phenomenological and neurophysiological research on psychedelics and hypnosis, and we summarize early investigations on the coupling of psychedelics and hypnosis in scientific and therapeutic contexts. Results/outcomes: We highlight commonalities and differences between psychedelics and hypnosis that point to the potential efficacy of combining the two in psychotherapy. We propose multiple research paths for coupling these two phenomena at different stages in the preparation, acute phase and follow-up of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in order to prepare, guide and integrate the psychedelic experience with the aim of enhancing therapeutic outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION:
Harnessing the power of suggestion to modulate response to psychedelics could enhance their therapeutic efficacy by helping to increase the likelihood of positive responses, including mystical-type experiences.
Lemercier, C. E., & Terhune, D. B. (2018). Psychedelics and hypnosis: Commonalities and therapeutic implications. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 0269881118780714.
Link to full text

Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial

June 15, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Depressive Disorders, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , , , , , ,

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Recent open-label trials show that psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, hold promise as fast-onset antidepressants in treatment-resistant depression.
METHODS:
To test the antidepressant effects of ayahuasca, we conducted a parallel-arm, double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial in 29 patients with treatment-resistant depression. Patients received a single dose of either ayahuasca or placebo. We assessed changes in depression severity with the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the Hamilton Depression Rating scale at baseline, and at 1 (D1), 2 (D2), and 7 (D7) days after dosing.
RESULTS:
We observed significant antidepressant effects of ayahuasca when compared with placebo at all-time points. MADRS scores were significantly lower in the ayahuasca group compared with placebo at D1 and D2 (p = 0.04), and at D7 (p < 0.0001). Between-group effect sizes increased from D1 to D7 (D1: Cohen’s d = 0.84; D2: Cohen’s d = 0.84; D7: Cohen’s d = 1.49). Response rates were high for both groups at D1 and D2, and significantly higher in the ayahuasca group at D7 (64% v. 27%; p = 0.04). Remission rate showed a trend toward significance at D7 (36% v. 7%, p = 0.054).
CONCLUSIONS:
To our knowledge, this is the first controlled trial to test a psychedelic substance in treatment-resistant depression. Overall, this study brings new evidence supporting the safety and therapeutic value of ayahuasca, dosed within an appropriate setting, to help treat depression.

Palhano-Fontes, F., Barreto, D., Onias, H., Andrade, K. C., Novaes, M. M., Pessoa, J. A., … & Tófoli, L. F. (2018). Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Psychological medicine, 1-9. 10.1017/S0033291718001356
Link to full text

Ayahuasca and Its DMT- and β-carbolines – Containing Ingredients Block the Expression of Ethanol-Induced Conditioned Place Preference in Mice: Role of the Treatment Environment

May 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychology, Publications, Substance Use Disorder / By / , , , , , ,

Abstract

Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage produced from the decoction of Banisteriopsis caapi (Bc) and Psychotria viridis (Pv), β-carboline- and N,N-dimethyltryptamine(DMT)-containing plants, respectively. Accumulating evidence suggests that ayahuasca may have therapeutic effects on ethanol abuse. It is not known, however, whether its effects are dependent on the presence of DMT or if non-DMT-containing components would have therapeutic effects. The aim of the present study was to investigate the rewarding properties of ayahuasca (30, 100, and 300 mg/kg, orally), Bc (132, 440, and 1320 mg/kg, orally) and Pv (3.75, 12.5 and 37.5 mg/kg, i.p.) extracts and their effects on ethanol (1.8 g/kg, i.p.) reward using the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm in male mice. Animals were conditioned with ayahuasca, Bc or Pv extracts during 8 sessions. An intermediate, but not a high, dose of ayahuasca induced CPP in mice. Bc and Pv did not induce CPP. Subsequently, the effects of those extracts were tested on the development of ethanol-induced CPP. Ayahuasca, Bc or Pv were administered before ethanol injections during conditioning sessions. While Bc and Pv exerted no effects on ethanol-induced CPP, pretreatment with ayahuasca blocked the development of CPP to ethanol. Finally, the effects of a post-ethanol-conditioning treatment with ayahuasca, Bc or Pv on the expression of ethanol-induced CPP were tested. Animals were conditioned with ethanol, and subsequently treated with either ayahuasca, Bc or Pv in the CPP environment previously associated with saline or ethanol for 6 days. Animals were then reexposed to ethanol and ethanol-induced CPP was quantified on the following day. Treatment with all compounds in the ethanol-paired environment blocked the expression of ethanol-induced CPP. Administration of an intermediate, but not a high, dose of ayahuasca and Bc, as well as Pv administration, in the saline-paired compartment blocked the expression of ethanol-induced CPP. The present study sheds light into the components underlying the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca on ethanol abuse, indicating that ayahuasca and its plant components can decrease ethanol reward at doses that do not exert abuse liability. Importantly, the treatment environment seems to influence the therapeutic effects of ayahuasca and Bc, providing important insights into clinical practice.
Cata-Preta, E. G., Serra, Y. A., Moreira-Junior, E. D. C., Reis, H. S., Kisaki, N. D., Libarino-Santos, M., … & Costa, J. L. (2018). Ayahuasca and Its DMT-and β-carbolines–Containing Ingredients Block the Expression of Ethanol-Induced Conditioned Place Preference in Mice: Role of the Treatment Environment. Frontiers in pharmacology, 9. 10.3389/fphar.2018.00561
Link to full text

Integrating Psychedelic Medicines and Psychiatry: Theory and Methods of a Model Clinic

April 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

The past two decades has seen a significant increase in both popular and scientific interest in psychedelic substances and plants as therapeutics for mental illness, addictions, and psychospiritual suffering. Current psychiatric practice privileges a biological paradigm in which the brain is considered the locus of mental illness and symptom-focused treatments are delivered to patients as passive recipients. In contrast, a psychedelic healing paradigm, constructed through examination of different ontologic understandings of plant medicines, is based on a complex multidimensional perspective of human beings and their suffering. This paradigm actively engages the sufferer in addressing root causes of illness through healing on multiple levels of existence, including spiritual and energetic domains. Numerous theoretical, methodological, and ethical challenges complicate the integration of the psychedelic healing paradigm into psychiatric practice. These include developing coherent therapeutic narratives that account for the complex processes by which psychedelic healing occurs and overcoming reductionist tendencies in the medical sciences. Tasked with overcoming such challenges, a model clinic is proposed that seeks to implement and study the psychedelic healing paradigm in a critical, interdisciplinary, and reflexive manner. Such “critical paradigm integration” would employ multimodal patient formulation and treatments, as well as a range of knowledge generation and sharing practices. Outcomes-oriented research would seek to establish an evidence base for the model, while critical dialogues would advance understandings of psychedelic substances and plants and related practices more generally. The clinic would serve as proof of concept for a new model of studying, conceptualizing, and treating mental illness.

Sloshower, J. (2018). Integrating Psychedelic Medicines and Psychiatry: Theory and Methods of a Model Clinic. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 113-132. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_7
Link to full text

Plant Knowledges: Indigenous Approaches and Interspecies Listening Toward Decolonizing Ayahuasca Research

September 10, 2024 / Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Humanities & Art, Papers, Publications, Scienitific Discipline / By /

Abstract

The ayahuasca research community is familiar with the concept of plant intelligences; however, they have yet to be adequately accounted for by commonly used research practices. This chapter is a call to examine the ontological and epistemological assumptions that underlie research practices and how these practices and assumptions may reinforce hierarchies of knowledge and animacy. The first part of this chapter describes some absences created by following a “methods as usual” approach when researching ayahuasca, based on ethnographic fieldwork at the World Ayahuasca Conference in 2016 (AYA2016). This highlights the need for researchers to acknowledge the methodological, disciplinary, and identity-based limitations on our abilities to produce and represent certain knowledges. Secondly, this chapter is a call to seriously and humbly engage with Indigenous sciences and epistemologies. This requires an honest reckoning with how research has contributed to colonial appropriation and marginalization of Indigenous knowledges. Indigenous ways of knowing have precedent for collaborating with teacher plants in producing knowledge and have much to contribute to discourse on multispecies perspectives. Lastly, I discuss possibilities for including multispecies sensibilities and Indigenous standpoints in research practices to create more collaborative and decolonial knowledges.

Dev, L. (2018). Plant Knowledges: Indigenous Approaches and Interspecies Listening Toward Decolonizing Ayahuasca Research. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 185-204. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_11
Link to full text
 

Bubbling with Controversy: Legal Challenges for Ceremonial Ayahuasca Circles in the United States

September 10, 2024 / Ayahuasca, Papers, Publications, Scienitific Discipline / By / , ,

Abstract

The use of ayahuasca has been spreading rapidly worldwide; however, no current statistics are available to provide a comprehensive understanding of the scope or pace of this expansion. In the United States, the expansion has included the appearance of the Brazilian ayahuasca religions Santo Daime and União do Vegetal (UDV), underground ceremonial circles, workshops with itinerant Amazonian shamans, and spiritual retreat centers. This trend has included the recent emergence of groups and organizations that publicly advertise “legal” ayahuasca ceremonies and retreats. This chapter maps the existence of a series of organizations and actors who have controversially claimed legal protection through incorporation as “branches” of the Native American Church (NAC). The legality, religious character, and sincerity of these churches are reviewed in light of governing law, such as the First Amendment of the US Constitution, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), and pertinent court cases involving the UDV and the Santo Daime, as well as ethnographic accounts of the historical Native American Church. Finally, it examines a petition for a religious exemption from the CSA from Ayahuasca Healings and speculates on the possibilities of the future of ayahuasca legality in the United States.

Feeney, K., Labate, B. C., & Hudson, J. H. (2018). Bubbling with Controversy: Legal Challenges for Ceremonial Ayahuasca Circles in the United States. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 87-111. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_6
Link to full text

Who Is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past for the Future

April 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Humanities & Art, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Psychedelics fell from medical grace nearly half a century ago, but recent activity suggests that some researchers are optimistic about their return. Are they at risk, however, of facing the same historic challenges with a new generation of psychedelic enthusiasts, or have the circumstances changed sufficiently to allow for a new path forward? The twenty-first-century incarnation of psychedelic research resurrects some anticipated hypotheses and explores some of the same applications that clinicians experimented with 50 years ago. On the surface then, the psychedelic renaissance might be dismissed for retreading familiar ground. A deeper look at the context that gave rise to these questions, though, suggests that while some of the questions are common, the culture of neuroscience and the business of drug regulation have changed sufficiently to warrant a retrial. A close look at the history of psychedelics encourages us to think carefully about the roles of regulators, the enthusiasm of researchers, and our cultural fascination and/or repulsion with mind-altering molecules.

Dyck, E. (2018). Who Is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past for the Future. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 1-17. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_1
Link to full text

interested in becoming a trained psychedelic-assisted therapist?

Management of Psychedelic-Related Complications - Online Event - Nov 20th

REGISTER NOW