Ayahuasca: Psychological and Physiologic Effects, Pharmacology and Potential Uses in Addiction and Mental Illness

Abstract

Many years of shamanic wisdom have indicated potential therapeutic uses for ayahuasca, and many present day studies suggest that it may be useful for treating various psychiatric disorders and addictions. The side effect profile appears to be relatively mild, but more detailed studies need to be done. Several prominent researchers feel that government regulations with regard to ayahuasca should be relaxed so that it could be provided more readily to recognized credible researchers to conduct comprehensive clinical trials.

Influence of environment on the leaf morpho-anatomy and histochemical of the ayahuasca leaf: Populations cultivated in extra-Amazonian regions

“…P. viridis stands out among the genus as an important widespread tropical understory tree providing important bioactive alkaloids (Soares et al, 2017). Leaves of P. viridis are used in the composition of Ayahuasca tea, an entheogenic beverage known as Daime, Caapi, Yajé, Hoasca or Vegetal Hamill, Hallak, Dursun, & Baker, 2019), remarkably used in religious rituals and indigenous pharmacopoeia (Domínguez-Clavé et al, 2016).…”

Subjective time under altered states of consciousness in ayahuasca users in shamanistic rituals involving music

“…Studies of brain electrical activity with electroencephalogram (EEG) during the action of hallucinogens help us to understand the psychoactive properties of ayahuasca and its possible relationship with hallucinogenic effects. Experiments outside the ritual context that record spontaneous electrical activity in the brain indicate that most psychedelic compounds tend to reduce slow wave activity (alpha and theta) and increase fast wave activity (beta) (10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Don et al (11), analyzing the effect of a dose of ayahuasca during ritualistic use, transferred their participants to an adjacent room to perform EEGs and found a more activated pattern of electrical activity, with statistically significant increases in the beta band from 14 to 30 Hz and a tendency to a decrease in the power of the slow (theta and alpha) brain rhythms after the ingestion of a dose of ayahuasca.…”

“…The psychoactive effect of ayahuasca on the brain has been found to involve changes in neural circuits recorded by an electroencephalogram apparatus (10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Effects of chronic intermittent exposure to ayahuasca in mice have been explored (15).…”

“…Effects of chronic intermittent exposure to ayahuasca in mice have been explored (15). In addition, in terms of therapeutic purposes, ayahuasca has shown psychological and physiologic effects, with potential use in mental illness as a substance with antidepressant potential (4,14,16). Although ayahuasca has been widely studied within a pharmacological context (2), few studies have examined its properties using an ecological approach, such as in the ritual context.…”

“Tobacco Is the Chief Medicinal Plant in My Work”: Therapeutic Uses of Tobacco in Peruvian Amazonian Medicine Exemplified by the Work of a Maestro Tabaquero

“…This is particularly relevant also for the psychosomatic and mental health domain (Gureje et al, 2015), where treatments are known to be markedly underprovided on a global scale (see worldwide treatment gap in mental health; Kohn et al, 2004;WHO, 2008;Evans-Lacko et al, 2017) and where chronicity is common (Costello et al, 2002;Brandon et al, 2007;Koob and Le Moal, 2008;WHO, 2008). Among traditional medical systems currently investigated for mental health, especially the Amazonian tradition and its psychoactive ayahuasca brew (Banisteriopsis caapi and varying admixture plants; Riba et al, 2003;McKenna, 2004) have recently become the center of scientific attention across the globe (Feeney et al, 2018;Hamill et al, 2018;Labate and Cavnar, 2018). Clinical research in this context has been burgeoning over the last years, alongside research on other psychoactive substances (see also "psychedelic-assisted therapies"; Tupper et al, 2015;Johnson et al, 2019), with growing evidence showing ayahuasca to benefit affective disorders, substance use, anxiety disorders, and other conditions (Thomas et al, 2013;Labate and Cavnar, 2014;Osorio Fde et al, 2015;dos Santos et al, 2016;Nunes et al, 2016;Coe and McKenna, 2017;Domıńguez-Clavéet al, 2018;Palhano-Fontes et al, 2018;Renelli et al, 2018;Berlowitz et al, 2019).…”