In brief
- Survey of 808 people in Brazil before participating in an ayahuasca ceremony
- Those with more than 20 prior sessions reported lower depression, anxiety, stress, and alcohol consumption than first-timers
- This is an observational study: it cannot determine if ayahuasca causes this difference or if the groups were different from the start
A team from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) has published a survey comparing the mental states of individuals with varying levels of prior ayahuasca experience, all of whom were about to participate in a ceremony. The pattern is clear: the more prior sessions, the lower the scores for depression, anxiety, and stress, and the higher the reported spiritual well-being.
Who was surveyed and what was asked
The study, with Daniel C. Mograbi as the corresponding author, Marcio S. C. Longo leading the study design, and co-authors from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Fluminense Federal University, surveyed 808 Brazilian adults one week before attending an ayahuasca ceremony. Participants filled out questionnaires regarding substance use, depression, anxiety, stress, spiritual well-being, “aberrant salience” (a psychological measure linked to the tendency to attribute special meaning to irrelevant stimuli), and metaphysical beliefs. They were then divided into three groups based on their history: people trying it for the first time, those with low or moderate experience (up to 20 sessions), and those with high experience (more than 20 sessions).
What changes with experience and what does not
The group with the most experience reported less alcohol consumption, less depression, less stress, and less anxiety than the group with no prior experience, in addition to greater spiritual well-being and more pronounced metaphysical beliefs. Aberrant salience, however, was higher in both the low/moderate and high experience groups compared to those who had never taken it, with no significant differences between those two groups. Differences in tobacco use were modest, and other cognitive measures showed smaller effects. A discriminant analysis that attempted to classify each person into their group based on these scores was only accurate about 46% of the time, indicating that the three groups overlap significantly and that prior experience alone does not predict an individual’s psychological state.
Implications
The authors themselves highlight the primary limitation: this is a cross-sectional, not longitudinal, design, so it does not allow for the establishment of causality. It is impossible to know if repeatedly taking ayahuasca improves these indicators or if, simply, people who already manage their distress better are the ones who continue returning to ceremonies over the years; both explanations are compatible with the same data. The groups were also not of equal size (novices were a minority), the sample is exclusively Brazilian, and the measures are based on self-reporting. Nevertheless, the work opens a concrete path for investigating with longitudinal designs whether the relationship is truly causal.
Source
- Cruz, L. V. M., Longo, M. S. C., Rodrigues, R., Sanchez, T. A. and Mograbi, D. C. “Prior ayahuasca experience is associated with improved mental health: observational data from ritualistic settings”. npj Mental Health Research, September 10, 2026.
More context on this plant and its active compound in our ayahuasca and DMT guide.
Educational content written from a harm reduction perspective and with respect for individual freedom. It is not a substitute for advice from a healthcare professional and is not intended to encourage or condemn any drug use.
