Effects of ayahuasca on mental health and quality of life in naïve users: a longitudinal and cross-sectional study combination.
Open accessAbstract
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic decoction used as a traditional medicine in several Amazonian regions. The ritualistic use of ayahuasca has spread throughout many countries, making it necessary to study its risks and benefits. Two sub-studies were designed for this investigation. In sub-study 1, a psychiatric interview and a battery of questionnaires were administered to subjects (n = 40) before their first ayahuasca use. Two follow-ups were conducted at 1 and 6 months. In sub-study 2, the same interview and battery of questionnaires were administered to long-term ayahuasca users (n = 23) and their scores were compared with those of the ayahuasca-naïve group. In the first assessment, nearly half (45%) of the naïve users were found to meet the diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric disorder. After the ayahuasca use, more than 80% of those subjects showed clinical improvements that persisted at 6 months. The questionnaires showed significant reductions in depression and psychopathology. Regarding sub-study 2, long-term users showed lower depression scores, and higher scores for self-transcendence and quality of life, as compared to their peers in sub-study 1. Further controlled and observational naturalistic studies assessing the eventual risks and potential benefits of ayahuasca are warranted.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Similar reductions in ratings of anxiety symptoms have been demonstrated in naturalistic samples with heterogeneous mental health status.
“and in naturalistic samples with heterogeneous mental health status (21–23).”
From Decreases in State and Trait Anxiety Post-psilocybin: A Naturalistic, Observational Study Among Retreat Attendees (2022) · cites this paper as [21]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 59 · Cited by 110
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [54]González de Rivera, J. L., De las Cuevas, C., Rodríguez, M. & Rodríguez, F. Cuestionario de 90 síntomas SCL-90-R de Derogatis, L. Adaptación española. (Pearson, 2002).
- [60]Alonso J Prieto L Anto JM La versión española del SF-36 Health Survey (Cuestionario de Salud SF-36): un instrumento para la medida de los resultados clínicos Med. Clin. (Barc.) 1995 104 771 6 7783470
- Authors
- Jiménez-Garrido, D. F., Gómez-Sousa, M., Ona, G., Dos Santos, R. G., Hallak, J. E. C., Alcázar-Córcoles, M. Á., & Bouso, J. C.
- Affiliations
- International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research, and Service (ES)
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Bouso, José Carlos
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2020-03-05
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4075-4075
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7057990
- OpenAlex
- W3009608926
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 5
- FWCI
- 6.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion)
- Biblos-e Archivo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Rovira & Virgili repository (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Hispana (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Alkaloids: synthesis and pharmacology
- Keywords
- ayahuasca, hallucinogens, mental health, quality of life, depression, psychopathology, self-transcendence, mental illness, psychedelic therapy
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Mental Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Hallucinogens, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Personality, Psychopathology, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Banisteriopsis, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
