Traditional Use of Banisteriopsis caapi Alone and Its Application in a Context of Drug Addiction Therapy

ABSTRACT

Takiwasi is a therapeutic community for the treatment of Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) that combines traditional Amazonian medicine (TAM) with modern psychotherapy. One of the plant medicines from TAM used in this protocol is purgahuasca. It is a decoction of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi alone, whose use is traditional among the Awajún and other ethnic groups in Peru. The research began with a field trip to Awajún territory to explore the indigenous use of purgahuasca as an initiation rite. Then, analysis of its application was conducted in the clinical context of Takiwasi. Open-ended and semi-structured interviews with Awajún informants and Takiwasi’s therapeutic staff were performed and analyzed following the narrative methodological approach. Further clinical data on the ingestion of purgahuasca by Takiwasi’s SUD patients were obtained from the internal repository. These indicate that 359 (92.1%) patients reported having had the so-called mareación (dizziness), 299 (76.7%) experienced physical sensations, and 208 (53.3%) had visions. These effects can be related to the psychoactivity of β-Carbolines alkaloids from B. caapi, a medicinal plant that seems to have potential benefits also for SUD, especially giving a key contribution to the patients’ therapeutic process of becoming aware of the personal reasons behind addictive behaviors.

KEYWORDS:

• Banisteriopsis caapi
• purgahuasca
• substance use disorder (SUD)
• β-Carbolines
• ayahuasca
• Awajún medicine

Acknowledgments

The authors kindly thank Rebecca Lazarou (MSc) for her support in the final editing of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

All authors were employed by the Takiwasi Center at the time the research was conducted. Co-author JT served both as a research interview participant and as part of the authorship team.