Marlene Dobkin de Rios

Report on Psychoactive Drug Use Among Adolescents Using Ayahuasca Within a Religious Context

Abstract Ritual use of ayahuasca within the context of the Brazilian ayahuasca churches often starts during late childhood or early adolescence. Premature access to psychoactive drugs may represent a risk factor for drug misuse. Conversely, religious affiliation seems to play a protective role in terms of substance abuse. The objective of this study was to describe patterns of drug use in a sample of adolescents using ayahuasca within a religious setting. Forty-one adolescents from a Brazilian ayahuasca sect were compared with 43 adolescents who never drank ayahuasca. No significant differences were identified in terms of lifetime substance consumption. Throughout the previous year period, ayahuasca adolescents used less alcohol (46.31%) than the comparison group (74.4%). Recent use of alcohol was also more frequent among the latter group (65.1%) than among ayahuasca drinkers (32.5%). Although not statistically significant, slight differences in terms of patterns of drug use were definitely observed among groups. Despite their early exposure to a hallucinogenic substance, adolescents using ayahuasca in a controlled setting were mostly comparable to controls except for a considerably smaller proportion of alcohol users. Religious affiliation may have played a central role as a possible protective factor for alcohol use. Thus, ayahuasca seems to be a relatively safe substance as far as drug misuse is concerned.

Ayahuasca in adolescence: a preliminary psychiatric assessment.

Abstract Ayahuasca is believed to be harmless for those (including adolescents) drinking it within a religious setting. Nevertheless controlled studies on the mental/ psychiatric status of ritual hallucinogenic ayahuasca concoction consumers are still lacking. In this study, 40 adolescents from a Brazilian ayahuasca sect were compared with 40 controls matched on sex, age, and educational background for psychiatric symptomatology. Screening scales for depression, anxiety, alcohol consumption patterns (abuse), attentional problems. and body dysmorphic disorders were used. It was found that, compared to controls, considerable lower frequencies of positive scoring for anxiety, body dismorphism, and attentional problems were detected among ayahuasca-using adolescents despite overall similar psychopathological profiles displayed by both study groups. Low frequencies of psychiatric symptoms detected among adolescents consuming ayahuasca within a religious context may reflect a protective effect due to their religious affiliation. However further studies on the possible interference of other variables in the outcome are necessary.

Adolescent Drug Use in Cross-Cultural Perspective

An analysis is made of adolescent hallucinogenic plant ingestion during initiation rituals among Australian Aboriginal males, Tshogana Tsonga females and among Chumash youth of Southern California. This use pattern contrasts with abusive patterns of drug abuse found among American adolescents. Findings indicate the existence of managed altered states of consciousness in the tribal societies studied, where plant hallucinogens are given by elders to youth as part of an intensive, short-term socialization for religious and pedagogical purposes. The use of hypersuggestibility as a cultural technique to “normalize” youth in the tribal societies under study is analyzed in contrast to the role of pathology of drug ingestion patterns among American adolescents.

Ayahuasca in Adolescence: A Neuropsychological Assessment

Abstract The purpose of the study was to evaluate neuropsychologically adolescents who use ayahuasca in a religious context. A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to adolescents who use ayahuasca. These subjects were compared to a matched control group of adolescents who did not use ayahuasca. The controls were matched with regards to sex, age, and education. The neuropsychological battery included tests of speeded attention, visual search, sequencing, psychomotor speed, verbal and visual abilities, memory, and mental flexibility. The statistical results for subjects from matched controls on neuropsychological measures were computed using independent t-tests. Overall, statistical findings suggested that there was no significant difference between the two groups on neuropsychological measures. Even though, the data overall supports that there was not a difference between ayahuasca users and matched controls on neuropsychological measures, further studies are necessary to support these findings.

Hallucinogens and Redemption

Abstract This article examines drug substitution with regard to hallucinogens (ayahuasca, ibogaine, peyote and LSD) set within the concept of redemption. The model examines both religious and secular approaches to the contemporary use of hallucinogens in drug substitution, both by scientists and in religious settings worldwide. The redemptive model posits that the proper use of one psychoactive substance within a spiritual or clinical context helps to free an individual from the adverse effects of their addiction to another substance and thus restores them as functioning members of their community or group. Data is drawn from the U.S., Brazil, Peru, and West Africa. Two principle mechanisms for this are proposed: the psychological mechanism of suggestibility is examined in terms of the individual reaching abstinence goals from addictive substances such as alcohol and opiates. Neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms to understand the efficacy of such substitution are highlighted from ongoing research on hallucinogens. Research by two of the authors with the Uñaio do Vegetal (UDV) Church in Brazil is examined in terms of the model.

Ayahuasca in Adolescence: Qualitative Results

Abstract Qualitative research was conducted in Brazil among 28 ayahuasca-consuming adolescents members of the Uniāo do Vegetal Church, and 28 adolescents who never used ayahuasca. They were compared on a number of qualitative variables, including vignettes measuring moral and ethical concerns. Psychocultural studies utilizing co-occurences of variables in the realm of qualitative studies are useful in understanding and complementing quantitative studies also conducted among this population. Qualitative data show that the teens in the Uniāo do Vegetal religion appear to be healthy, thoughtful, considerate and bonded to their families and religious peers. This study examines the modem use of a powerful hallucinogenic compound within a legal religious context, and the youth who participated in these ayahuasca religious ceremonies (usually with parents and other family members) appeared not to differ from their nonayahuasca-using peers. This study helps to elucidate the full range of effects of plant hallucinogenic use within a socially-sanctioned, elder-facilitated and structured religious context.

Alter ego representations in San Agustin monolithic sculptures: possible plant hallucinogenic influences.

This article examines the evidence for plant hallucinogenic use (possibly Brugmansia, Brunfelsia chiricaspi, Desfontainia R., Anadenanthera peregrina, Banisteriopsis sps, Psychotropia viridis and Virola theidora) by the San Agustin culture, an extinct peoples who resided in the Magdelena River area of Colombia from the third century B.C. until the sixteenth century A.D. Based on thematic materials gathered from a cross-cultural survey of plant hallucinogens, the author examines themes in the monolithic sculptures of this culture in light of man-animal transformations and shamanic themes linked to plant hallucinogenic ingestion.Abstract This article examines the evidence for plant hallucinogenic use (possibly Brugmansia, Brunfelsia chiricaspi, Desfontainia R., Anadenanthera peregrina, Banisteriopsis sps, Psychotropia viridis and Virola theidora) by the San Agustin culture, an extinct peoples who resided in the Magdelena River area of Colombia from the third century B.C. until the sixteenth century A.D. Based on thematic materials gathered from a cross-cultural survey of plant hallucinogens, the author examines themes in the monolithic sculptures of this culture in light of man-animal transformations and shamanic themes linked to plant hallucinogenic ingestion.

Ecstasy: In and About Altered States

(2006). Ecstasy: In and About Altered States. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs: Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 317-319.