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

ABSTRACT

Background: There exists an underexploited opportunity to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to SUDs based upon the complementarity between modern and traditional health systems.

Objectives: 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.

Methods: The description was built from a review of the literature, institutional data, participatory observation and unstructured interviews with staff, researchers and patients during treatment.

Results: Since the foundation of the Takiwasi Center in 1992 in the peruvian Amazon, more than a thousand patients with different socio-cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds have received residential treatment. We present how traditional Amazonian medicine techniques and health concepts cooperate to complement modern psychology in a therapeutic community setting and propose some hypotheses about the neurobiological, psycho-emotional and spiritual healing mechanisms triggered by the program to help people identify and heal the roots of their substance misuse and addictive behavior. We also summarize quantitative outcomes during treatment showing significant improvements in a wide variety of mental health indicators.

Conclusion: Takiwasi Center’s program is an option for people seeking non-conventional treatment who are sensitive to traditional Amazonian medicine practices and ready to explore the roots of their addiction. From this intercultural approach, some lessons could emerge toward a broader understanding of SUDs that may result in better patient care.

Resumen

Antecedentes: La complementariedad existente entre los sistemas de salud modernos y tradicionales brinda una oportunidad, aún poco aprovechada, para desarrollar enfoques terapéuticos innovadores para los Trastornos por Uso de Sustancias. Objetivos: Ilustrar la viabilidad y potencialidad de estos enfoques a través de la descripción detallada del modelo y programa de tratamiento del Centro Takiwasi, donde conceptos y prácticas de salud provenientes de la medicina tradicional Amazónica funcionan sinérgicamente con la psicoterapia y la medicina moderna en un diálogo intercultural para la rehabilitación de personas que padecen Trastornos por Uso de Sustancias.

Métodos: La descripción fue concebida y elaborada partir de revisión de la literatura, datos institucionales, observación participante y entrevistas no estructuradas con el personal del centro, investigadores y pacientes durante el tratamiento.

Resultados: Desde la fundación del Centro Takiwasi en 1992 en la selva peruana, más de mil pacientes de varios orígenes socioculturales, étnicos y religiosos han recibido tratamiento residencial para adicciones. Mostramos cómo las técnicas y conceptos de salud de la medicina tradicional Amazónica cooperan para complementar a la psicología moderna en el contexto de una comunidad terapéutica y proponemos algunas hipótesis sobre los mecanismos neurobiológicos, psicoemocionales y espirituales de curación activados por el programa para ayudar a las personas a identificar y sanar las causas del abuso de sustancias y del comportamiento adictivo. También presentamos resultados cuantitativos que evidencian mejoras significativas durante el tratamiento en una amplia variedad de indicadores de salud mental.

Conclusión: El programa del Centro Takiwasi es una opción para personas que buscan un tratamiento no convencional, están abiertas a las prácticas de la medicina tradicional Amazónica y predispuestas para explorar las raíces de su adicción. De este enfoque intercultural, podrían derivarse algunas lecciones que contribuyan a ampliar nuestra comprensión de los Trastornos por Uso de Sustancias que resulte, a su vez, en la mejora de la atención ofrecida a los pacientes.

KEYWORDS:

• addiction
• ayahuasca
• mental health
• mystical experiences
• nature therapy
• psychedelic medicine
• transcultural
• spirituality

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• adicción
• ayahuasca
• salud mental
• experiencias místicas
• terapia de naturaleza
• medicina psicodélica
• transcultural
• espiritualidad

Acknowledgments

We deeply appreciate Takiwasi's staff and patients for openly sharing their clinical and healing experiences with TAM, and the institution for providing sociodemographic data. We thank David O’Shaughnessy for revising the English grammar and style and useful comments and Silvia Fernandez for her role at the early stage of this article. Finally, we are also deeply thankful to Amazonian indigenous people for generously sharing their healing knowledge. In memory of Rosa Giove Nakazawa, Takiwasi Center co-founder and pillar who dedicated her entire life to explore and heal human suffering beyond the known and understandable boundaries.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare to have experienced the Traditional Amazonian Medicine practices described in the paper for their own personal development and health at the Takiwasi Center and elsewhere. Therefore, authors' positions combine learnings from their scientific observation of the therapeutic process by patients, visitors and practitioners, with their own individual and personal experiences. The authors report no other relevant disclosure.

Additional information

Funding

FM has been Scientific Coordinator at Takiwasi between 2008 and 2018 and is Principal Investigator of the Ayahuasca Treatment Outcomes (ATOP) Project since 2013. CG has volunteered and did fieldwork for her master thesis at Takiwasi and SG has been research assistant and was in charge of data collection of ATOP between 2016 and May 2022.