PSYCHEDELICS | MENTAL HEALTH
Ayahuasca Study: It’s Good News for Retreat Goers
A study followed attendees of ayahuasca retreats to see effects six months later
It’s now over 18 months since my two days at an ayahuasca retreat in the Netherlands. Since then I’ve not been depressed or socially anxious, or any more anxious than you’d expect the average human to be as they live through a global pandemic. The pre-ayahuasca me would not have coped so well.
Despite hugely promising current studies on psychedelics and other drugs for mental health issues, ayahuasca ceremony retreats have had little study. Most research on ayahuasca has been with South American natives who use the psychedelic brew within their culture, or in clinical settings, with little or no study done on people like me who travelled to take part in a retreat.
Now a naturalistic study has been published, with results consistent with what we’d expect from all the talk around the DMT-containing drink.
The study took place on participants attending a retreat in Peru. Of the 63 participants, before the study, 31 met the criteria for depression (11 mild, 11 moderate, and 9 severe).
