Traditional Indigenous-Amazonian Therapy Involving Ceremonial Tobacco Drinking as Medicine: A Transdisciplinary Multi-Epistemic Observational Study.
Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education December 1, 2024 Ilana Berlowitz, Ernesto García Torres, Juan Celidonio Ruiz Macedo et al. 3 citations
Indigenous healers in the Peruvian Amazon use tobacco therapeutically, but this practice has been largely ignored by clinical research. A pilot field study assessed 27 patients before and after a weeklong treatment by a traditional healer specialized in tobacco. Validated self-report scales showed significant reductions in anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and general symptom indicators. Patients reported initial physical discomfort followed by psychologically or spiritually significant insights. The findings suggest a sophisticated therapeutic approach based on Indigenous knowledge that warrants further investigation, contributing to research on therapeutic uses of psychoactive plants.