How Safe Is Ayahuasca? Large-Scale Study Explores...

[NNadir]

I've seen a recent uptick in interest in hallucinogenic drugs, sometimes modified, in the ethical pharmaceutical industry as a treatment for depression and other emotional syndromes. Thus this article in one of my news feeds (Technology News) caught my eye:

How Safe Is Ayahuasca? Large-Scale Study Explores

The article is open sourced and free, but here are some excerpts:

new study by researchers at the University of Melbourne has analyzed adverse effects reported by users of the hallucinogenic tea, ayahuasca.

Ayahuasca
The hallucinogenic beverage ayahuasca has been used for religious and medicinal purposes by Amazonian tribes for thousands of years. More recently, ayahuasca retreats and research projects – exploring the beverage’s potential effects on health, spirituality and personal growth – have seen its use expand globally.

The hallucinogenic effects of ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is made by prolonged heating or boiling of the Banisteriopsis caapi stem with the leaves of the Psychotria viridis plant. B. caapi provides a source of harmine, which inhibits the breakdown of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) supplied by P. virdis, increasing the bioavailability of DMT in the body and resulting in the hallucinogenic side effects.

At the University of Melbourne, Dr. Daniel Perkins is involved in a number of research projects surrounding medicinal psychedelics and medicinal cannabis. He is the director of the Global Ayahuasca Project, which aims to increase our understanding of ayahuasca drinking context across the world, including why people drink it, the reported impacts of ayahuasca on health and wellbeing and the potential risks associated. His team’s latest research, published in PLOS Global Public Health provides potentially the largest source of information on ayahuasca’s adverse side effects to date.

The Global Ayahuasca Project online survey

The researchers analyzed data from an online Global Ayahuasca Survey that ran from 2017–2019, recruiting 10,836 respondents from over 50 countries.

The questionnaire obtained demographic information, such as age, sex, level of education and history of mental health diagnoses, and data relating to ayahuasca drinking history, such as frequency, patterns and contexts of use...

The original research article, in PLOS, is also open sourced:

Adverse effects of ayahuasca: Results from the Global Ayahuasca Survey José Carlos Bouso,Óscar Andión,Jerome J. Sarris,Milan Scheidegger,Luís Fernando Tófoli,Emérita Sátiro Opaleye,Violeta Schubert,Daniel Perkins Published: November 16, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000438

Have a nice weekend.

[dpibel]

1. Interesting definitions

It appears that the study considers as "adverse mental health effects" what most people would consider a psychedelic experience. I do give the writers bonus points for "relatively high."

Fifty five percent of the survey responders reported adverse mental health effects, a “relatively high” figure according to the researchers. However, “although the frequency of any adverse mental health effects was high, only ‘hearing or seeing things that other people do not hear or see’ was observed in 28.5% of the ayahuasca users,” the researchers say.


Approximately 21% of participants reported “feeling disconnected or alone”, while 4.4% experienced visual distortions. The duration of any adverse mental health effect reported in the survey was less than one week. When asked to offer qualitative perspectives on these experiences, some of the participants expressed how they are considered a positive element of their ayahuasca journey.