Hallucinogen shows promise

A potent hallucinogenic Amazonian brew has shown promise in treating depression, research has found. By Hannah Martin.

An international academic is coming to New Zealand extolling the use of a potent hallucinogen in treating depression.

For centuries, shamans in remote corners of the Amazon have been making ayahuasca, an entheogenic brew of two plants and containing the psychedelic DMT (Dimethyltryptamine).

It has long been used as traditional spiritual medicine, but now researchers are looking at its role in modern medicine – specifically, in treating depression.

Dr Nicole Galva˜ o-Coelho, from the University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, is visiting the University of Auckland next week to give a talk on such research, and the use of psychedelics to treat mental distress.

Interest in ayahuasca in Western countries has picked up in recent years, with tourists flocking to south America to take part in ayahuasca ceremonies. When combined, the plants affect the central nervous system, leading to an altered state of consciousness that can include hallucinations, out-of-body experiences and euphoria.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade warns against ayahuasca tourism. While not illegal it is not regulated, and people have reported psychological damage, assault, theft and rape under the influence.

Galva˜o-Coelho was part of a team that tested the impacts of ayahuasca on depression in a randomised, double-blind, controlled trial. The findings were published in the Frontiers in Psychiatry journal last year.

Depression affects hundreds of millions people worldwide. About 30 per cent are resistant to available antidepressants. Patients with treatment-resistant depression and healthy control subjects were given either ayahuasca tea or a placebo, and had their cortisol levels tested 48 hours later.

Cortisol is the body’s main stress hormone. Too much or too little of it can be harmful.

The findings suggested ‘‘significant’’ and ‘‘rapid’’ reduction in depressive symptoms after a single ayahuasca session, when compared to the placebo, Galva˜ oCoelho told Stuff. Salivary cortisol levels increased in patients given ayahuasca, putting them on par with the healthy controls.

Researchers also found a link between this effect and improvements of ‘‘biomarkers’’ of depression, increasing a protein in the brain that induces the brain’s ability to change. An earlier study on marmosets found primates given ayahuasca responded better than those given traditional pharmaceutical antidepressants.

The idea of using psychedelics to treat mental illness is not new. International trials have found magic mushroom (psilocybin) therapy effective in treating depression, anxiety and addiction, while MDMA therapy helped PTSD sufferers.

Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick, from the University of Auckland’s Department of Psychological Medicine, said there was increasing awareness and interest in moving away from classic interventions to treat depression.

Hetrick said there was ‘‘always room for innovation’’, and as such, Galva˜ o-Coelho’s talk was drawing widespread interest.

Psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald said research around psychedelics was exciting and it was ‘‘encouraging’’ New Zealand was opening up to such ideas.

The war on drugs and a ‘‘hangover of 1960s counter-culture’’ saw hallucinogens clamped down on for decades, limiting this sort of research, MacDonald said.

While they could be psychologically ‘‘quite hard’’, psychedelics were safe medically and the chance of harm or adverse reaction was low, he said.

MacDonald said the theories as to why these drugs worked in mental illness largely centre around the kind of ‘‘alternative consciousness’’ some reach.

People reported their perspective – and psychological distress – shifting, which ‘‘can be really therapeutic’’.