Ancient medicine for a modern disease: traditional Amazonian medicine to treat substance use disorders.

There exists an underexploited opportunity to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to SUDs based upon the complementarity between modern and traditional health systems. Illustrate the feasibility and potentiality of such an approach through the comprehensive description of Takiwasi Center's treatment model and program, where health concepts and practices from traditional Amazonian medicine work synergistically with modern psychotherapy and medicine in an intercultural dialog to assist in the rehabilitation of people suffering from SUDs. The description was built from a review of the literature, institutional data, participatory observation and unstructured interviews with staff, researchers and patients during treatment.

Therapeutic Effects of Ceremonial Ayahuasca Use for Methamphetamine Use Disorders and Other Mental Health Challenges: Case Studies in an Indigenous Community in Sonora, Mexico.

This paper describes three case studies from an outpatient intercultural therapeutic program founded and run by Yaqui health professionals and traditional healers to serve members of the Yaqui tribe residing in Sonora, Mexico. This pilot therapeutic program has been designed specifically for Indigenous individuals, incorporating the ceremonial use of naturally derived psychedelics in addressing substance use disorders and other mental health issues. The program employs a community-based approach, integrating various traditional Indigenous healing practices like the sweatlodge (), medicinal plant preparations, and the ritualistic use of selected psychedelics from natural sources (such as ayahuasca, peyote, and secretions from ).

Pilot Evaluation of a Residential Drug Addiction Treatment Combining Traditional Amazonian Medicine, Ayahuasca and Psychotherapy on Depression and Anxiety.

Recent research highlighted the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant brew used ritually in traditional Amazonian medicine (TAM). The present study evaluates the impact of integrating ayahuasca and TAM with psychotherapy on depression and anxiety in an inpatient addiction treatment program. Male patients ( = 31) were evaluated pre and post treatment using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).