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Persisting Effects of Ayahuasca on Empathy, Creative Thinking, Decentering, Personality, and Well-Being

A new study from our group:

Collaboration with facilitators of ayahuasca ceremonies throughout the Netherlands has allowed us to assess if Ayahuasca, a psychedelic brew of Amazonian origin, induces persisting short- and long-term effects on emotional and cognitive functioning of healthy volunteers. It was found that 24 hours after participating in an ayahuasca ceremony, participants reported higher life satisfaction and increases in cognitive empathy. One week after the ceremony, we found a lasting increase in empathy, decentering and life satisfaction. At the same time, ratings of the trait neuroticism and divergent thinking dropped. Do you want to learn more? Read the full paper here, published in Frontiers in Pharmacology.

Figure 1. Mean scores of some of the variables showing significant (* p < 0.05) changes throughout the study process: Session 1= baseline; Session 2= morning after the ceremony; Session 3= one week after the ceremony.

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