Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 10;13(1):19635. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-44193-5.
Ayahuasca is a brew with psychoactive properties that has been used as an entheogen for centuries, with more recent studies suggesting it is a promising treatment for some clinical disorders. Although there is an emerging scientific literature on its effects, to the best of our knowledge no study has explored the self-reported experiences of first-time ayahuasca users with quantitative textual analysis tools. Accordingly, the current study aimed to analyze the subjective experience of naive individuals with depression and healthy controls after consuming ayahuasca. For this purpose, responses from a subsample of participants from a previous clinical trial to open-ended questions regarding their experience with ayahuasca underwent textual analysis. Data from nine patients with treatment-resistant depression and 20 healthy individuals were included, and quantitative textual analysis was performed using IRaMuTeQ 0.7 alpha 2 and R 3.1.2. The analysis identified five clusters: alterations in the state of consciousness, cognitive changes, somatic alterations, auditory experiences, and visual perceptual content. Additionally, findings suggest specific features of the experience of people with depression with ayahuasca, such as increased aversive bodily reactions. The results are consistent with previous findings indicating central axes of the psychedelic experience, and may inform therapeutic approaches using ayahuasca.
阿育吠陀是一种具有致幻特性的酿造物，已被用作精神药物数百年，最近的研究表明，它是治疗某些临床疾病的有前途的方法。尽管关于其效果的新兴科学文献很多，但据我们所知，没有研究使用定量文本分析工具来探索初次使用阿育吠陀的人的自我报告体验。因此，本研究旨在分析抑郁和健康对照组的初次使用阿育吠陀者的主观体验。为此，对先前临床试验中一组参与者对阿育吠陀体验的开放性问题的回答进行了文本分析。共纳入了 9 名治疗抵抗性抑郁症患者和 20 名健康个体的数据，并使用 IRaMuTeQ 0.7 alpha 2 和 R 3.1.2 进行了定量文本分析。分析确定了五个聚类：意识状态改变、认知改变、躯体改变、听觉体验和视觉感知内容。此外，研究结果表明，阿育吠陀使用者的抑郁体验具有特定的特征，例如增加了令人不快的身体反应。这些结果与先前表明迷幻体验中心轴的研究结果一致，并可能为使用阿育吠陀的治疗方法提供信息。
