Moderators of ayahuasca's biological antidepressant action

Geovan Menezes de Sousa, Vagner Deuel de Oliveira Tavares, Ana Cecília de Menezes Galvão, Raíssa Nóbrega de Almeida, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Bruno Lobão-Soares, Fúlvio Aurélio de Morais Freire, Emerson Arcoverde Nunes, João Paulo Maia-de-Oliveira, Daniel Perkins, Jerome Sarris, Dráulio Barros de Araujo, Nicole Leite Galvão-Coelho

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7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Introduction: The understanding of biological responses to psychedelics with antidepressant potential is imperative. Here we report how a set of acute parameters, namely emotional (depressive symptoms), cognitive (psychedelic experience), and physiological (salivary cortisol), recorded during an ayahuasca dosing session, modulated serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), serum cortisol (SC), serum interleukin 6 (IL-6), plasma C-reactive protein (CRP), and salivary cortisol awakening response (CAR). Methods: Results were analyzed 2 days after the psychedelic intervention (ayahuasca) versus placebo in both patients with treatment-resistant depression and healthy volunteers. These measures were assessed as part of a randomized double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial (n = 72). Results: Results revealed that larger reductions of depressive symptoms during the dosing session significantly moderated higher levels of SC in patients. Whereas lesser changes in salivary cortisol levels during the ayahuasca intervention were related to higher BDNF levels in patients with a larger clinical response in the reduction in depressive symptoms. No moderator was found for patient’s CAR, IL-6, and CRP responses to ayahuasca and for all biomarker responses to ayahuasca in healthy controls and in the placebo group. Discussion: In summary, some specific emotional and physiological parameters during experimental ayahuasca session were revealed as critical moderators of the improvement of major depression biomarkers, mainly BDNF and SC two days after ayahuasca intake. These findings contribute to paving the way for future studies investigating the biological antidepressant response to psychedelic therapy.
Original languageEnglish
Article number1033816
Number of pages11
JournalFrontiers in Psychiatry
Volume13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2022 Sousa, de Oliveira Tavares, de Menezes Galvão, de Almeida, Palhano-Fontes, Lobão-Soares, de Morais Freire, Nunes, Maia-de-Oliveira, Perkins, Sarris, de Araujo and Galvão-Coelho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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