Cultura y Droga
July 3, 2018
Matteo Politi, Fabio Friso, Jacques Mabit
19 citations
Several American treatment centers use traditional herbal medicines or their derivatives to address substance dependence. Psychoactive plants that induce modified states of consciousness—Ayahuasca, Coca, Wachuma, Tobacco, Psilocybe mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, and Peyote—are particularly relevant. Plant-based assisted therapy for substance use disorders is a promising research field, but clinical outcome validation needs improvement for most cases examined.
Journal of psychoactive drugs
January 1, 2021
Matteo Politi, Fabio Friso, Gary Saucedo et al.
18 citations
A therapeutic community for substance use disorders combines traditional Amazonian medicine with modern psychotherapy. One plant medicine used is purgahuasca, a decoction of Banisteriopsis caapi vine traditionally used by Awajún people as an initiation rite. Clinical data from patients show that after ingestion, 359 (92.1%) reported mareación (dizziness), 299 (76.7%) experienced physical sensations, and 208 (53.3%) had visions. These effects relate to β-carboline alkaloids in B. caapi, which may contribute to patients' therapeutic process by helping them become aware of personal reasons behind addictive behaviors.
Revista Peruana de Medicina Integrativa
March 25, 2019
Gary Saucedo Rojas, Fabio Friso, Jaime Torres Romero et al.
8 citations
Between 2013 and 2018, the Takiwasi Center in Peru used the PPLUS information system to track patient profiles, treatments, and outcomes. Of 188 patients who left the therapeutic community, 45.2% (85) completed treatment and were discharged medically. Among the 54.8% who did not finish, 33.5% withdrew voluntarily, mostly during the first month. The center recorded 19,620 traditional Amazonian medicine practices: ayahuasca sessions made up 36.1% and purging sessions 39.1%. Research profiles showed 46.5% were psychology practitioners and 29.8% external researchers. PPLUS adoption was gradual and uneven, with peak records in 2016, but it shows potential as a research tool.
Ecosystems and People
April 18, 2024
David Manuel‐navarrete, Serena Deluca, Fabio Friso et al.
7 citations
Ayahuasca use in settings co-produced by Indigenous and Western knowledges can foster relationality and sustainability transformations across ontology, praxis, and epistemology. A survey of 74 English-speaking individuals who attended ceremonies at the Takiwasi Center in Peru, along with 11 interviews and a discussion circle, revealed unexpected shifts: participants reported boundary dissolution and changes in self-perception, experiencing nature and non-human beings as having spiritual or human-like agency. This blurring of boundaries challenged their materialist ontologies. Co-produced ceremonies enhanced relational thinking and embodiment of relationality, with inner-outer transformations emerging from integrating the 'plant's teachings' into daily life. The findings contribute to inner transformations and the relational turn in sustainability, though scaling plant-based ceremonies must be weighed against impacts on the Amazon rainforest and its biocultures.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
May 15, 2025
Marc Sherwin, Fabio Friso, Jörg Fachner et al.
4 citations
Curative songs called icaros, used by traditional healers in the Peruvian Upper Amazon alongside the psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, may aid healing by influencing self-referential processing, promoting decentering, and facilitating beneficial introspective or meditative states. An interpretive phenomenological analysis of six participants attending an ayahuasca ritual for personal and spiritual development at the Takiwasi Center in 2018 provides pointers toward a neurophenomenology of musico-healing experiences. The work contributes a medical ethnomusicological perspective to understanding how Amazonian curative songs function under the altered state of consciousness produced by ayahuasca.
Cultura y Droga
July 1, 2019
Matteo Polit, Fabio Friso, Jacques Mabit
4 citations
The boundaries between viewing drug consumption as a crime versus a health issue may be overcome by drawing on ancient wisdom from traditional medicines. This article surveys treatment centers worldwide that use plant- or animal-derived substances for substance use disorders, including psychoactive derivatives of Tabernanthe iboga and Bufo alvarius. Drawing on scientific literature, information exchanges, internet searches, and the authors' personal experience, the article reflects on how the same substance can be considered a medicine or a toxicant depending on cultural context, policy, and use.
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs
September 1, 2024
Svět Lustig Vijay, Magdalena Harris, Fabio Friso et al.
1 citation
Ayahuasca, a plant-based entheogen from the Amazon, is increasingly studied for treating substance dependence, but little research has examined the act of purging (mainly vomiting) considered central to healing in ayahuasca rituals. At the Takiwasi Center in Peru, interviews with 11 healers, plant preparers, and psychotherapists revealed that purging is understood as a fluid concept beyond vomiting. Their narratives fell into three themes: spiritual-oriented (purging aids spiritual development), Amazonian-oriented (purging expels embodied 'cargas' that cause sickness), and clinical-oriented (purging yields observable therapeutic benefits). All models emphasized purging's pivotal connection to healing during ayahuasca-assisted treatment for substance dependence.