Therapy with ayahuasca

Ayahuasca (also called yage) is appearing more and more frequently in the media and in the common people these days, and many are reporting scavenging experiences with a strong therapeutic effect. I often get questions about ayahuasca and will answer some of these here.

What is it?

Slightly simplified, ayahuasca is a drink that is mainly cooked by two types of plants from South America. One is a climbing plant called ayahuasca (baisteriopsis caapi) which contains DMT, which is it psychoactive the substance in the drink. DMT is found naturally in a number of plants, but when one ingesting this substance usually it is digested by the enzymes in the stomach and therefore has none psychoactive effect. When combining this plants with the leaves of a shrub called chacruna (psychotria viridis) on the other hand (or others, depending on the country in which the tea is made), allows the body to take it up orally. AOther ingredients that can be added to ayahuasca tea include ayahuma bark, capirona bark, uchu sanago and wyra caspi bark.

Why do you do it?

Classic psychedelics (fungi / psilocybin, LSD, peyote / mescaline and DMT) appear to have good psychotherapeutic effects for several disorders, including depression, anxiety and addiction. In addition, many people use it to "find themselves" or find solutions to problems in life, from personal to professional. Gabor Maté's explanation in this lecture sounds good in my ears, but there are many other interesting hypotheses out there too. When it comes to research on ayahuasca, it is operated in a different way from, for example, psilocybin, LSD and MDMA due to large pharmacological variations in the brew itself. Therefore, clinical trials are not initiated and it will take a long time before it can be approved as a drug in the West. But there are still some interesting observational studies out there that are worth looking at. For example this.

How does it work?

This is actually a little uncertain. One could argue that there is a purely physiological effect of psychedelics reducing activity in an area called Default Mode Network, which increases activity in the rest of the brain and forms new nerve pathways. This makes it easier to think differently and break habits. One can also argue that it is a purely psychological process where you get the opportunity to become your own therapist by becoming extra conscious of your own thought processes for a few hours. Most people probably think that it is both and that the physiological and psychological cannot be separated. It has long been concluded that the right "set and setting", or state of mind and environment, is a decisive factor for good results. This means that the pure pharmacological effect cannot be isolated from the environment, as you can with most medicines available today.