Personality, Psychopathology, Life Attitudes and Neuropsychological Performance among Ritual Users of Ayahuasca: A Longitudinal Study
Personality, Psychopathology, Life Attitudes and Neuropsychological Performance among Ritual Users of Ayahuasca: A Longitudinal Study
复制标题
DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0042421
复制
发表时间：
2012-08-08
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Riba, Jordi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Carlos Bouso, Jose;Gonzalez, Debora;Riba, Jordi
Ayahuasca是一种亚马逊地区的精神活性植物饮料，含有5-HT 2A激动剂N，N-二甲基色胺（DMT）和单胺氧化酶抑制生物碱（骆驼蓬碱，骆驼蓬碱和四氢骆驼蓬碱），使其具有口服活性。死藤水的摄入是巴西几个融合教会的中心特征，这些教会已将其活动扩展到巴西城市、欧洲和北美。这些群体的成员通常每月至少摄入两次死藤水。先前的研究表明，急性ayahuasca增加了前额叶和颞叶大脑区域的血流量，并在思维过程，感知和情感方面产生了强烈的变化。然而，经常使用ayahuasca似乎不会引起滥用药物所特有的成瘾相关问题。为了研究重复使用ayahuasca对一般心理健康，心理健康和认知的影响，我们在基线和1年后评估了经常使用ayahuasca的人（n = 127）和对照组（n = 115）的个性，精神病理学，生活态度和神经心理学表现。对照组积极参加非ayahuasca宗教。使用者表现出较高的奖励依赖和自我超越，较低的伤害回避和自我导向。他们在所有精神病理学指标上的得分都明显较低，在Stroop测试、威斯康星州卡片分类测试和WAIS-III的字母-数字排序任务上表现更好，在额叶系统行为量表上的得分也更好。生活态度的分析显示，较高的分数在精神取向量表，生活目的和心理社会幸福感测试。尽管随访时参与者数量较少，但一年后与对照组的总体差异仍保持不变。总之，我们没有发现使用ayahuasca组的心理失调，心理健康恶化或认知障碍的证据。
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychoactive plant beverage containing the serotonergic 5-HT2A agonist N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and monoamine oxidase-inhibiting alkaloids (harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine) that render it orally active. Ayahuasca ingestion is a central feature in several Brazilian syncretic churches that have expanded their activities to urban Brazil, Europe and North America. Members of these groups typically ingest ayahuasca at least twice per month. Prior research has shown that acute ayahuasca increases blood flow in prefrontal and temporal brain regions and that it elicits intense modifications in thought processes, perception and emotion. However, regular ayahuasca use does not seem to induce the pattern of addiction-related problems that characterize drugs of abuse. To study the impact of repeated ayahuasca use on general psychological well-being, mental health and cognition, here we assessed personality, psychopathology, life attitudes and neuropsychological performance in regular ayahuasca users (n = 127) and controls (n = 115) at baseline and 1 year later. Controls were actively participating in non-ayahuasca religions. Users showed higher Reward Dependence and Self-Transcendence and lower Harm Avoidance and Self-Directedness. They scored significantly lower on all psychopathology measures, showed better performance on the Stroop test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Letter-Number Sequencing task from the WAIS-III, and better scores on the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale. Analysis of life attitudes showed higher scores on the Spiritual Orientation Inventory, the Purpose in Life Test and the Psychosocial Well-Being test. Despite the lower number of participants available at follow-up, overall differences with controls were maintained one year later. In conclusion, we found no evidence of psychological maladjustment, mental health deterioration or cognitive impairment in the ayahuasca-using group.