The participants were asked to rate every how much does the average person spend on alcohol per year item on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree). The total score ranges from 5 to 35 and is obtained by summarizing the ratings given per each item. Higher scores indicate greater life satisfaction, with a score of 20 representing a neutral point on the scale.
Association with ayahuasca’s adverse mental health effects
Subjects felt that they were more non-judgmental, acted with more awareness, and were more observant on the day following ayahuasca. Similar findings have been reported in an observational study that compared aspects of mindfulness before and 24 h after an ayahuasca ceremony using the same FFMQ questionnaire (Soler et al. 2016). In the present study, ratings of mindfulness and satisfaction with life increased by 5–8%, relative to baseline. On average, similar increments in mindfulness were obtained at 4 weeks after the ayahuasca ceremony, but this time, these no longer achieved statistical significance.
Table 5
Researchers at the University of Melbourne used data for a study on ayahuasca dangers from an online global survey carried out between 2017 and 2019, involving 10,836 people from more than 50 countries who were at least 18 years old and had used ayahuasca at least once. It is important to note that the potential health benefits of ayahuasca result from the effects of its active ingredients. As mushrooms have a different active ingredient, they may not have the same outcomes in terms of brain health and well-being. While some research highlights the potential benefits of ayahuasca, it is important to note that most of these studies were small scale, and some took place in animals or test tubes. After 6 months, the participants continued to report positive and lasting changes. They also showed improvements in their overall quality-of-life scores, mindfulness, and sense of empowerment and hope.
At the latter time point, the increase in cognitive performance also reached statistical significance. The PCT task has previously been used in an observational ayahuasca study to show that the brew increases performance at the divergent, creative thinking assignment but decreases performance in convergent thinking assignments (Kuypers et al. 2016). In the latter study, PCT performance was assessed during the acute phase of the ayahuasca experience (i.e., 2 h after intake), whereas in the present study, PCT performance was assessed sub-acutely and a month after the ceremony. It is conceivable that divergent, flexible thinking will improve during the acute psychedelic, modified state of consciousness that ayahuasca produces but not thereafter. Convergent thinking may not prosper during a psychedelic experience but may improve afterwards because it relies on mindfulness capabilities such as acting with awareness that contribute to optimization of cognitive functioning (Lebudaa et al. 2015). Increments in convergent thinking may therefore coincide with improvements in mindfulness that were observed in the present sample of ayahuasca users.
Considering the fact that the side effects of most psychedelics are unpredictable, this is entirely understandable. Although Ayahuasca was originally used for religious and spiritual purposes, it’s now recreationally used worldwide by people who want to open their minds, heal from mental illness, and have an “enlightening” Ayahuasca experience. People may travel on retreats to countries like Peru, Brazil, and Costa Rica to experience the effects of the Ayahuasca drug.
This means they’re in charge of substance abuse games for groups the ingredients and doses that go into the brew. There have been reports of Ayahuasca ceremonies being led by untrained individuals, putting participants in danger. Also, while some may claim that there are some pros of taking the brew, in clinical trials that were carefully controlled, there are minimal positive findings related to this brew.
Ayahuasca, which proponents say takes you on an intense but healing emotional journey, is a psychedelic, which is a class of psychoactive substances that can alter perception and mood and affect numerous cognitive processes. However, ayahuasca consumption also carries risks like physical reactions and mental and psychological issues. Speak with a medical professional before attempting any form of ayahuasca treatment. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic substance from the ayahuasca vine and other plants containing DMT and beta-carbolines. It has a few alleged potential health benefits, such as enhanced mindfulness and relief from PTSD.
The PCT was composed of stimuli from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Each stimulus contains between 4 and 12 color pictures shown in two or three rows. The participants are instructed to find an association between one of the pictures of each row. They are asked to provide the correct solution as there is only one correct answer.
However, anyone with an existing heart condition is at high risk when using ayahuasca. A dedicated shaman leads the intense psychedelic experience, guiding people through their transformative journey. In total, 4 ayahuasca samples were obtained (two from Colombia and two from The Netherlands). Although Ayahuasca’s potential for addiction is not yet confirmed, its short and long-term side effects are disturbing. It’s also common for people who experiment with hallucinogenic drugs to experiment with more intense substances. If long-term substance abuse occurs, the person may develop an addiction that requires PHP or outpatient drug treatment.
Religious and Therapeutic Usage
Compared to other substances, persistent drug-induced mental health problems such as hallucinogen-persisting perception disorders (HPPD) are rarely reported among ayahuasca users [70]. However, a history of past trauma can put vulnerable patients at risk if they use mind-altering substances without proper guidance or psychological / spiritual support [71]. In that sense, as we have found in the current study, non-supervised contexts may increase the probability of suffering an adverse even.
- People may travel on retreats to countries like Peru, Brazil, and Costa Rica to experience the effects of the Ayahuasca drug.
- The few medical studies of the drug have been inconclusive, which puts consuming ayahuasca as highly illegal and dangerous.
- The participants answered the scale with endpoints of either 0 (No, not more than usual) or 100 (Yes, I experienced this completely/entirely).
To assess divergent thinking, participants were asked to provide as many alternative associations as possible between the colored pictures. This is the regular instruction included in measures of divergent thinking, and it is used to calculate several parameters, i.e., originality, fluency, and the ratio of both, which reflects the quality of divergent thinking as originality is corrected for quantity. Answers that were shared with a single participant were valued as 1, and answers that were shared by three or more participants were rated zero.
Previous research demonstrated that a single oral dose of ayahuasca decreased depressive symptoms in three females as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression Scale (HAM-D) (De Lima Osório et al. 2011). Depressive symptoms decreased by 79% on day 1 after intake and remained at 66% below their baseline 2 weeks after intake. More recently, 17 patients who received an oral dose of ayahuasca (2.2 mL/kg) showed a significant reduction in depressive symptoms within a day following treatment which was still present 21 days later (Sanches et al. 2016).
Mean (SE) of the positive and negative ratings assessing attitudes, mood, social effects, and behavior, measured after ayahuasca ceremony by the PEQ are presented in Table 3. Overall, adverse health effects were reported by nearly 70% of participants with the most common effects being vomiting and nausea, headache, and abdominal pain. About 2% of participants who reported adverse physical events required medical attention. A creativity task with non-verbal stimuli was used, i.e., the picture concept task (PCT) (Kuypers et al. 2016).
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Review Committee of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht, the Netherlands. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. The picture concept test alcohol dry eyes (PCT) was used to assess creativity (Kuypers et al., 2016).
Statistical analysis
A recent study quantified about 2,000 components in a final ayahuasca brew utilising the traditional plants [60]. Observational research should acknowledge and ideally account for such differences. About 55% of participants reported adverse mental health effects ranging from hearing and seeing things to feeling disconnected to nightmares. Further to this, a 2018 study that involved people who took part in ayahuasca ceremonies found that ratings of depression and stress significantly decreased following the ceremony. The ayahuasca brew in Colombia was taken in a secluded location in the rainforest on top of a mountain or in the courtyard of an eco-village. Participants arrived at the location in the evening and remained in a dimly-lit ceremonial building called maloca, used for ayahuaca ceremonies.