The first studies on the therapeutic benefits of ayahuasca began in the 1980s. These investigations suggest several psychotherapeutic utilities related to both pharmacological effects and subjective experience.
- Ayahuasca can support personal development, psychological and emotional well-being, and social harmony and cohesion, as well as catalyze spiritual or religious experiences.
- Promotes “decentering” or the ability to perceive thoughts and emotions as transient events of the mind, without becoming trapped in them.
- Promotes mindfulness and cognitive flexibility,5 allowing people to contemplate events, situations and relationships from detached perspectives.
- Ayahuasca produces antidepressant effects in patients with clinical diagnoses. These effects were maintained for 21 days after administration of a single dose.
- Various forms of purification, such as vomiting, constitute desired effects that promote physical, emotional and energetic cleansing.
- The possibility of facing difficult emotional or psychological content can lead to a transformative and healing process.
- There is evidence of positive results in grief therapy, persistent after one year, including some mechanisms of action previously not described in the scientific literature.
- Its possible neuroprotective and neurogenerative properties could be useful for the treatment of dementia and a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.