A puke bucket and an ancient drug: is ayahuasca the future of PTSD treatment?

I visited Peru to find out more about an intriguing ayahuasca study – and to have my own experience with the psychedelic brewI ’m sitting on a blue plastic, wipe-down mattress with my back to a wooden pillar. Within arm’s reach on the floor is a small torch to light my way to the toilet during the night, on the other side an orange plastic bucket to puke into. As the light fades my four companions, each with his or her own plastic mattress and bucket, disappear from view while on every side the barks, croaks, growls and cries of jungle life grow louder. Twenty minutes ago I gulped down a draught of thebitter psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca and I have convinced myself that I can feel its hot, unstoppable progress through my body, from my seething guts into my veins and onwards to my brain.This is hardly a recreational drug experience, what with the nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, not to mention the possibility a truly terrifying trip, yet thousands now beat a path to Peru, Ecuador and Brazil every year to drink ayahuasca. Some are just looking for an exotic thrill, but others hope for enlightenment and healing from this ancient plant medicine. In the past few years, many of them have been war veterans desperate to escape the nightmares ofpost-traumatic stress disorder.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Drugs Science Post-traumatic stress disorder Mental health Society Medical research Source Type: news