Unifesp tests ayahuasca for alcoholism – 02/16/2023 – Psychedelic Turn

Continuing its tradition of research with psychoactive substances, the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) is about to launch two clinical studies in the psychedelic field, with ayahuasca and mushrooms Psilocybe cubensis.

The tea used as a sacrament in religions such as Santo Daime, Barquinha and União do Vegetal (UDV) will be used in patients who abuse alcohol. The so-called “magic” mushrooms, in turn, will be given to smokers who want to quit smoking but are unable to do so.

These are still very preliminary studies, which, for example, do not have a placebo control group, and are intended to test the feasibility and safety of the procedures, rather than their effectiveness. There will be, respectively, 13 and 15 participants, recruited from patients at the Center for Integrated Mental Health Care (CAISM) at Unifesp, in Vila Mariana.

“We are going to look at side effects very carefully”, says psychiatrist Dartiu Xavier da Silveira. “After all, we are bringing psychedelics into a psychiatric hospital, we need to be careful to avoid unforeseen events.”

The psychiatrist continues the line of research in which the physician and psychopharmacologist Elisaldo Carlini (1930-2020) shone, a pioneer in the investigation of cannabinoids. Silveira has participated in several researches with psychedelics, such as observational studies with ayahuasca and ibogaine.

In the coordination of the tests, in whose planning 12 specialists work, is the biomedical and neuroscientist Renato Filev. He informs that the dehydrated mushrooms will be provided by the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Seropédica (RJ) and the ayahuasca by a UDV nucleus in Brasília.

It is not uncommon for alcohol and tobacco dependents to have other psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety. These are conditions for which psychedelics have been reaping good results (albeit in trials with few patients, in general), hence the idea of ​​testing them for cases of chemical dependence.

The Johns Hopkins University (USA) used psilocybin as an adjunct to psychotherapy in a test with 15 smokers, 13 of whom rated the psychedelic experience as one of the five most significant in their emotional life.

A dozen of them kept in contact for several months with the researchers. Ten of the participants (67%) were smoke free one year after being treated with psilocybin.

Unifesp volunteers will participate in a protocol similar to that adopted at Johns Hopkins. They will have up to nine meetings with Silveira and Filev’s team, in screening and preparation sessions followed by dosing and integration (appointment to seek meanings in the lived experience). A month later, they may choose to take a second dose.

The first dose, to verify safety, will be weaker: 0.75 milligrams of DMT (psychoactive of ayahuasca) per kilogram of weight of the participant and, in the case of mushrooms, 2 grams. In the second, 1.5 mg/kg of DMT and 3 g of dry fungi.

As usual in clinical studies with psychedelics, attention is paid to the environment in which the session takes place, which is called in the jargon of the “setting” area. Unifesp’s armchair, for example, can be reclined to become a bed, and the room will be decorated with plants and pictures.

The volunteer will have a mask to cover his eyes and headphones. You can choose between two lists of recordings, one with instrumental music and the other with sounds of nature.

Around 20% of the costs of the two studies, budgeted at R$600,000, will come from the company Bienstar, which invests in psychedelic treatments in Brazil. Its founder, Marco Algorta, says that the engagement in research and in the creation of the network of Beneva clinics is aimed at changes in the regulation of substances such as DMT, psilocybin and MDMA, which may have licenses for clinical use approved in the coming years.

“We want to get ahead of these changes and have the opportunity to obtain clinical information to make an assessment of care protocols with these substances”, says Algorta. In addition to chemical dependence, Bienstar intends to refine protocols to treat depression and post-traumatic stress.

Bienstar’s clinical director is doctor Bruno Rasmussen Chaves, who has been treating chemically dependent people with ibogaine for over two decades in the city of Ourinhos (SP). He and Silveira are studying the idea of ​​carrying out a clinical test with this drug of African origin, this time with a placebo group control.

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NOTICE TO NAVIGATORS – Psychedelics are still experimental therapies and certainly do not constitute a panacea for all psychic disorders, nor should they be the object of self-medication. Speak with your therapist or doctor before venturing into the area.

To learn more about the history and new developments of science in this area, including in Brazil, look for my book “Psiconautas – Viagens com a Ciência Psychedelica Brasileira”.

On the tendency to legalize the therapeutic and adult use of psychedelics in the US, see the article “Cogumelos Livres” in the December 2022 issue of Piauí magazine.

Be sure to also see the articles in the series “A Ressurreição da Jurema” in Folha:

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