Ayahuasca, Neurogenesis and Depression
Ayahuasca, Neurogenesis and Depression
Recent scientific research suggests that neurogenesis – the growth of new brain cells – is a key to curing depression.
People suffering depression have an enlarged amygdala, a structure deep in the brain, which produces amongst other things stress hormones. An enlarged, overactive amygdala may produce too much cortizol, a fight-or-flight stress hormone. Too much cortizol can whittle away neural structures – especially in the hippocampus which is the cortizol shut off valve. In depressed people, this structure can be 15% smaller than the statistical average.
With the hippocampus function reduced and the amygdala enlarged and in overdrive, a damaging positive feedback loop gets established and eventually other neural structures such as the prefrontal cortex get damaged – the dentrites (the connections) get sheared away, leading to a tragic reduction of the full potential of a person.
Thus, depression is both a somatic and psychologically self-reinforcing cycle that requires intervention on several levels. The commonly persued course of action is via anti-depressants such as SSRI’s which increase serotonin.
The old theory for administering selective serotonin reuptake Inhibitors is that the brain is suffering from a lack of available serotonin, and that Prozac and other drugs in its class help by increasing the amount of serotonin circulating in the brain by reducing their uptake. However, it is well known such drugs take weeks to take effect, despite the fact that serotonin levels are boosted straight away.
Scientists are discovering that the mechanism is a lot more complicated than a simple lack of serotonin, but is rather enmeshed in the damage rendered by cortizol and related stress hormones, and impeded function of the hippocampus.
Serotonin can promote neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells, and Prozac seems to work by promoting neurogenesis in the hippocampus. And not only SSRIs, but other antidepression treatments affect a type of protein that is involved in neurogenesis. It is established that SSRI’s help to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus. A neurotrophic factor is a protein, such as nerve growth factor, that promotes nerve cell growth and survival.
BDNF is a growth, sustainer and protector factor in the brain ; a neurogenesis hormone. Antidepressants apparently help keep hippocampal cells alive by boosting BDNF levels, inducing neurogenesis. Raising serotonin ups a protein known as CREB inside nerve cells, which also give rise to neurogenesis. This means that SSRI’s help to regenerate the hippocampus thus keeping the amygdala in balance.
This path of action restores the neurological balance which contributes (or else, determines) a healthy emotional life.
Banisteriopsis caapi, the Ayahuaca vine, is regarded by many that use it as an antidepressant. The mono-amine oxidase inhibiting beta-carbolines in the vine reduce the clearing of serotonin from the synaptic cleft : i.e MAOI is another angle from which serotonin can be boosted, which qualifies the use of MAOI in the treatment of depression back in the mid twentieth century.
It has been indicated that one of the constituents of the vine, THH, actually causes an increase in the density of platelet serotonin uptake sites in long-term users. It is likely that the increase of density of serotonin uptake sites in longterm users be an adaption to more monoamines in the system. . Increases in serotonin transporters could well be an adaptation to increased serotonin levels caused by MAO inhibition.
The additional power of Ayahuasca over commonly prescribed SSRI’s is that it allows people to experientially approach the early causal factors to their depression and work to symbolically resolve them, and cathart the primal pain and energies bound up in those repressed early experiences. After all, whilst we can address the run-away neurological consequences of deep trauma or chronic stress, the experiential gestalts themselves must be catharted and integrated. Ayahuasca allows conscious realization of how those experiences effect ones constitution and patterns of behaviour, giving beneficial insights into how the effects of the damaging influences on ones life can be greatly negated by changes of attitude and lifestyle.
Recommended Reading :
How Prozac Affects the Brain
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9171-how-prozac-affects-the-brain.html
Repairing the Mind
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg17924082.500
The Anatomy of Dispair
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18224455.700
Daniel Mirante is Daniel Mirante is a 30 year old artist, author and university trained researcher facinated with deep ecology, shamanic tradition, and the creative process. Daniel initiates a collaborative studio space in Brighton, UK, to support the unfolding of emerging visionary artists. www.lila.info
Daniel's paintings have been exhibited worldwide and his writings on plants, art and mysticism published in a variety of on-line and printed publications, including ‘Feminine Mysticism in Art:Artists Envisioning the Divine’ edited by Victoria Christian and Susan Stedman and Laurence Caruana's Visionary Revue (www.visionaryrevue.com)
Daniel's yage inspired paintings are at http://lila.info/about/daniel-mirante-bio. Daniel has worked with the medicine in both Mestizo, syncretic and solo/freeform contexts.
Email this author | All posts by Daniel Mirante
Thank you so much for the article; it has filled in answers to a number of questions that I’ve had!
–Barry L. Osborne
Exellent article!
You use hypocampus for hippocampus. I found it misleading in a well written article
if someone has suffered depression for 10 years and can’t sleep at night time, could this still help? are there any side effects?
Since many years, I have a question and I can’t find any answer…
I ask myself what can be the consequences of the amygdala removing chirurgy?…
You know…a lot of children have serious problems with amygdala and doctors often simply remove it…
What can be the effect on one’s health…on the brain equilibrium?…
Thank you !
P.S….I am french-canadian…so…sorry for my poor english…
There aren’t really side effects other than vomiting from the ayahuasca brew (which is symbolically seen as a cleansing and integral part of the experience by shamans). There are some dietary restrictions for consuming an MAOI (cheese and aged meat mainly). Don’t eat anything high in tyramine for 12-24 hours before. People generally fast for about that amount of time to decrease nausea. Gotta hold the stuff down for a bit!
Also keep in mind if you are on SSRI you cant take this because SSRI+MAOI = bad news. Amazing how the government has already screwed people with depression from using this wonderful medicine that features the illegal chemical DMT which is found in our own bodies. Go figure!
Thank you for the hypothesis; it sounds valid, but can you site any research that states Ayahuasca is proven to do this? This article mentions that, ” …THH, actually causes an increase in the density of platelet serotonin uptake sites in long-term users.” Can you please provide the study or research that states that?
The article is well thought out and well written, by the way.
Thanks!
Callaway JC, Airaksinen MM, McKenna DJ, Brito GS, Grob CS.
Platelet serotonin uptake sites increased in drinkers of ayahuasca.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1994 Nov;116(3):385-7.
PMID: 7892432 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Abstract
The binding of [3H]citalopram to the platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) transporter was measured in a group of healthy male drinkers of ayahuasca, a psychoactive sacrament indigenous to Amazonia, and a group healthy male controls. An increased number of binding sites (Bmax) in the platelets of ayahuasca drinkers was found, while the dissociation constant (Kd) remained the same for both groups. If indicative of neuronal 5-HT uptake activity, these results would suggest a decreased concentration of extracellular 5-HT, or a response to increased production and release of 5-HT. Such changes in 5-HT synaptic activity, in this case, should not be misinterpreted as an indication of developing neurological or psychiatric illness.
i m floored. great contribution, i didnt know this
peace and love
the huasca won :]
I found this research report, which also proves Danial Mirante’s article is correct. The report is written by Dr. Callaway, Dr. D. Mckenna and Dr. C. Grob, (on “Scribd.com”, using the search word Ayahuasca). The title of the report is “The Scientific Investigation of Ayahuasca: A Review of Past and Current Research.” Dr. Calloway used “Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography”, to see what Ayahuasca was doing to his own brain, and found that …
“… Another interesting self-experiment related to this finding was carried out by one of the investigators,
Jace Callaway, following his return to Finland after the field phase of the study was completed. Dr.
Callaway has access to Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) scanning
facilities in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Kuopio. Suspecting that the causative
agent of the unexpected upregulation might be tetrahydroharmine (THH), Dr. Callaway took
SPECT scans of his own brain 5-HT uptake receptors prior to beginning a six week course of daily dosing
with tetrahydroharmine, repeating the scan after the treatment period. He did indeed find that the density of central 5-HT receptors in the prefrontal cortex had increased; when he discontinued THH, their density gradually returned to previous levels over the course of several weeks. While this experiment only had one subject, if it is indicative of a general effect of THH that can be replicated and confirmed, the implications are potentially significant.”
— I like the use of the SPECT here, it’s easier for me to understand—
Wow it seems ayahuasca if prepared correctly and used in the correct manner can be exponentially better at “raising spirits” or curing one of ones illness say than an ssri or an antidepressant. Stop me if im wrong?
Wonderful article. Many thanks!
Yet HELP, anybody who managed to get to read The Anatomy of Despair, and Repairing the Mind, from newscientist! They make you have to pay too steeply for the steeply required annual subscription, but I’m dying to read them! Anyone? Or we could share the subsciption;) ?!
Thank you for promoting what may be a good cure for those suffering from long term depression. By the comments so far I can see that small matters of detail may cause some readers to prematurely discount your credibility. In that spirit, I offer the following.
1) Hippocampus morphology in depressives is atrophied or misshapen but not enlarged.
See http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/1/83
2) The adrenal glands actually produce Cortisol when directed by the pituitary via the hypothalamus (the “HPA axis”). A damaged amygdala may cause an overproduction of cortisol through complicated interactions of the sympathetic and para-sympathetic systems.
Thanks Basil. But I didn’t say the hippocampus was enlarged in depressives, I said the amygdala was enlarged.
Enlarged Amygdala Volume and Reduced Hippocampal Volume in Young Women With Major Depression
Lange C, Irle E
Psychol Med
vol. 34, 1059 – 1064, 2004
Enlargement of the amygdala in patients with a first episode of major depression
Biological Psychiatry, Volume 51, Issue 9, Pages 708-714
T.Frodl
That said, there is also evidence in long term depression that the amygdala may be smaller. There are many ways for people to get depressed so no doubt there are many different types of physical indicators.