therapeutic

The therapeutic potential of ayahuasca

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.

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