Abstract
Previous clinical research on hallucinogen-assisted psychotherapy reported efficacy in treating substance abuse disorders, similar to what has been reported in naturalistic studies of peyote use among Native American Church members. Urban use of the Amazonian hallucinogenic brew, ayahuasca, is increasingly common in syncretic Brazilian ayahuasca religions, and anecdotal reports suggest recovery from substance dependence among those who participate in their rituals. We sought to assess more quantitatively the effects of Brazilian ayahuasca-using church membership on substance dependence. We employed a modified questionnaire using DSM-IV criteria to determine the presence of substance dependence within a sample of members of a branch of the Santo Daime Brazilian ayahuasca religion. Nearly half of these church members reported substance dependence before joining the religious organization; of these, 90 % reported cessation of use of at least one substance upon which, before church membership, they reported dependency. While these preliminary data require confirmation using more rigorous criteria, they suggest a potential role for ayahuasca, within a particular context, in the treatment of substance dependence.
This paper is a translation from the original Spanish published in 2013 as, “Efectos de la pertenencia al Santo Daime sobre la dependencia a sustancias psicoativas,” in B. C. Labate and J. C. Bouso, (Eds.), Ayahuasca y Salud (pp. 302–310). Barcelona: Los Libros de La Liebre de Marzo.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Albaugh, B. J., & Anderson, P. O. (1974). Peyote in the treatment of alcoholism among American Indians. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 1247–1251.
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Bogenschutz, M. P. & Pommy, J. M. (2012). Therapeutic mechanisms of classic hallucinogens in the treatment of addictions: From indirect evidence to testable hypotheses. Drug Test Analysis, 4, 543–555.
Callaway, J. C., Airaksinen, M. M., McKenna, D. J., Brito, G. S., & Grob, C. S. (1994). Platelet serotonin uptake sites increased in drinkers of ayahuasca. Psychopharmacology, 116(3), 385–387.
Goulart, S. L. (2004). Contrastes e continuidades em uma tradição amazônica: as religiões da ayahuasca. (Unpublished doctoral thesis). State University of Campinas, Brazil.
Grob, C. S., McKenna, D. J., Callaway, J. C., Brito, G. S., Neves, E. S., Oberlaender, G., et al. (1996). Human psychopharmacology of hoasca, a plant hallucinogen used in ritual context in Brazil. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders, 184, 86–94.
Grob, C. S. (1999). The psychology of ayahuasca. In R. Metzner (Ed.), Ayahuasca: Human consciousness and the spirits of nature (pp. 214–249). New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press.
Labate, B. C., & Araújo, W. S. (Eds.). (2004). O uso ritual da ayahuasca (2nd ed.). Campinas, Brazil: Mercado de Letras.
Labigalini, E., Rodrigues, L. R., & Silveira, D. X. (1999). Therapeutic use of cannabis by crack addicts in Brazil. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 31(4), 451–455.
Mabit, J. (2002). Blending traditions: Using indigenous medicinal knowledge to treat drug addiction. Newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, 12(2), 25−32.
MacRae, E. (1998). Santo Daime and Santa Maria: The licit ritual use of ayahuasca and the illicit use of cannabis in a Brazilian Amazonian religion. International Journal of Drug Policy, 9, 325–338.
McKenna, D. J., Towers, G. H. N., & Abbott, F. (1984). Monoamine oxidase inhibitors in South American hallucinogenic plants: Tryptamine and β-carboline constituents of ayahuasca. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 10(2), 195–223.
Naranjo, C. (1969). Psychotherapeutic possibilities of new fantasy-enhancing drugs. Clinical Toxicology, 2(2), 209–224.
Pahnke, W. N., Kurland, A. A., Unger, S., Savage, C., & Grof, S. (1970). The experimental use of psychedelic (LSD) psychotherapy. Journal of the American Medical Association, 212(11), 1856–1863.
Paloutzian, R. F., Richardson, J. T., & Rambo, L. R. (1999). Religious conversion and personality change. Journal of Personality, 67, 1047–1079.
Savage, C., & McCabe, O. L. (1973). Residential psychedelic (LSD) therapy for the narcotic addict: A controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 28(6), 808–814.
Sifaneck, S. J., & Kaplan, C. D. (1995). Keeping off, stepping on, and stepping off: The stepping stone theory reevaluated in the context of the Dutch cannabis experience. Contemporary Drug Problems, 22, 483–512.
Smart, R. G., Storm, T., Baker, E. F. W., & Solursh, L. (1966). A controlled study of lysergide in the treatment of alcoholism: I. The effects on drinking behavior. Quarterly Journal for the Study of Alcohol, 27(3), 469–482.
Sora, I., Hall, F. S., Andrews, A. M., Itokawa, M., Li, X. F., Wei, H., et al. (2001). Molecular mechanisms of cocaine reward: Combined dopamine and serotonin transporter knockouts eliminate cocaine place preference. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 98(9), 5300–5305.
Strassman, R. J., Qualls, C. R., Uhlenhuth, E. H., & Kellner, R. (1994). Dose-response study of N, N-dimethyltryptamine in humans II: Subjective effects and preliminary results of a new rating scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 51, 98–108.
Strassman, R. J. (1995). Hallucinogenic drugs in psychiatric research and treatment perspectives and prospects. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 183(3), 127–138.
Wellman, C. L., Izquierdo, A., Garrett, J. E., Martin, K. P., Carroll, J., Millstein, R., et al. (2007). Impaired stress-coping and fear extinction and abnormal corticolimbic morphology in serotonin transporter knock-out mice. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(3), 684–691.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Labate, B.C., dos Santos, R.G., Strassman, R., Anderson, B.T., Mizumoto, S. (2014). Effect of Santo Daime Membership on Substance Dependence. In: Labate, B.C., Cavnar, C. (eds) The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40426-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40426-9_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40425-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40426-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)