In this article we review and synthesize all the scientific literature and the experience of hundreds of facilitators, physicians, psychopharmacologists and experts we have interviewed over the years to elucidate this issue:
To understand this, it is important to clarify three concepts of psychopharmacology. Pharmacokinetics (how the body affects the drug) and pharmacodynamics (how the drug affects the body). Pharmacokinetic interactions is competing for metabolism (absorption and elimination) and pharmacodynamics is competing for the psychotropic or therapeutic «effect».
The third concept is the «half-life» which refers to the time it takes for the plasma concentration of a drug in the blood to be reduced to 50% in the body.
Well, from the theory of simple logic there would be a set time of days or weeks for the person to wean from each drug before taking ayahuasca so as not to produce a «serotonergic syndrome», ie an excess or overdose of serotonin in the body. As there is no manual of antidepressants ayahuasca psychiatrists of the old school usually recommend the same time that is used to wean from any drug in any scenario that are usually three weeks but from clinical practice for years we have seen that it is not so and that with a day or two before they leave them is enough, even doctors and several psychopharmacologists confirm that these people often need to take more ayahuasca for the «cross-tolerance» they have.
In this case we have already clarified that there are no serious pharmacokinetic interactions and there are no pharmacokinetic interactions if the intake is spaced in 24 or 48 hours. In fact taking ayahuasca and antidepressants at the same time would be like pressing the accelerator pedal and the brake at the same time since ayahuasca opens the symptom to heal the cause and catalyze healing and antidepressants suppress the symptom.
As psychiatrist Brian Anderson says in one of his scientific publications:
«Much of the concern over the use of ayahuasca by people taking antidepressant medications seems to stem from the issue of the alleged “serotonin syndrome” raised by James Callaway and Charles Grob in their 1998 article “Ayahuasca preparations and serotonin reuptake: a potentially serious combination of adverse interactions.“.
Serotonin syndrome is a concern among ayahuasca users because it contains harmala-type alkaloids, such as harmine and harmaline, which act as monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, meaning that they prevent serotonin from being broken down, thereby increasing serotonin levels in the body. Therefore, if a person is taking antidepressant drugs containing MAO inhibitors or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), most frequently used, it is feared that their serotonin levels may be raised too high if they drink ayahuasca.
Among the thousands of people throughout Brazil and other countries who regularly drink ayahuasca, many of them take antidepressant medications, and curiously not a single case of serotonergic syndrome due to ayahuasca use has appeared in the scientific literature since 1998 in Callaway and Grob's article. There are several possible reasons for this, one of them being that these cases are really very rare or non-existent. The idea that serious cases of serotonergic syndrome occur rarely, at least within the largest organization that uses ayahuasca in Brazil, the União do Vegetal (UDV), is supported by the statement made by psychiatrist Luis Fernando Tófoli, coordinator of the Mental Health Committee of the UDV, who has never heard of any report of such cases occurring in the UDV in the tens of thousands of people who have taken ayahuasca with them as long as they stop taking them one or two days before the ayahuasca intake.
Regarding anxiolytics, lithium or antipsychotics, it is sufficient to stop taking them also one or two days before taking ayahuasca. If you take any kind of psychopharmacological drugs and you are considering taking ayahuasca, it is important that you tell your trusted facilitator the type of drug you take as well as its dosage and frequency, so that together with your medical advisor he/she can give you indications. We know that many people take only their personal psychiatrist as a reference and many times they are not usually updated about ayahuasca and often give strong indications that you have to stop taking it three weeks before in order not to «get wet» assuming what they believe is a risk, so we invite you to listen to different criteria and you can investigate for yourself. An experienced facilitator would never put your safety or theirs at risk if there was a real risk involved.
As for antipsychotics it is important to clarify why the person is taking them, sometimes they are prescribed as «major tranquilizers» for people who have excessive rumination of thought and in that case it can be suggested that they stop taking them but if the person has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia or delusions and hallucinations it is not advisable to suggest that they stop taking them especially if they have had a recent psychotic break except in cases of schizophrenia where there is no presence of delusions or hallucinations but only isolation.
Lithium is falsely called «mood stabilizer» and is prescribed for bipolar disorder but in fact it is a tranquilizer. People with this diagnosis especially those who have a prevalence of depressive episodes (bipolar type ii) can take ayahuasca and it is efficient as shown by the studies of psychiatrist Benjamin Mudge but if they have a prevalence of manic episodes (type i) we suggest using a lower dose of ayahuasca. This psychiatrist healed his own bipolarity with ayahuasca.
If you have depression you may be tired of taking antidepressants and have been sold the idea that depression is caused by a supposed serotonin deficit in the brain. This is false as has already been demonstrated by the meta-analysis of Dr. Joana Moncrieff (we recommend reading her book «Speaking out: an introduction to psychiatric drugs» where she dismantles all the false marketing about the properties of antidepressants starting with their name which is not «anti something» but «unspecific and general sedatives». To say that depression is due to a supposed serotonin deficit and to compare it with diabetes is a biological reductionism that stigmatizes the person for life and that comes from a biomedical vision that does not consider the psychosocial aspects and that condemns the person to have to take a «medication» of «legal drugs» in a chronic way so that he/she does not «decompensate», We suggest to see this testimony of a woman who healed a depression of more than 20 years in which she was prescribed many types of antidepressants and that with a single session of 5-meo-dmt of the toad bufo alvarius managed to heal her (in the case of bufo alvarius it is also enough to stop taking the medication 1 or 2 days before). His testimony was given during the parliamentary conference on psychedelics in February 2026 in the middle of the Spanish Congress of Deputies:
De-depression is often no longer bear the pressure of the weight of the weight of the slab of the false idea that we have created of ourselves believing that we are guilty, wrong, unworthy and that makes the person establish a relationship of self-rejection with himself and hopelessness. Ayahuasca goes to the causes so you can heal them and feel innocent, worthy and confident and not just cover up what happens to you with the chemical straitjacket of antidepressants, if you take it you may be doubly free of depression and antidepressants, it depends on you and your decision. For studies on ayahuasca and healing of depression we suggest you read the studies of Dr. Draulio Araujo and Dr. Palhano Fontes as well as the studies on the safety and non-toxicity of this medicine by Dr. Jordi Riba at the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona for more than 20 years.
Signed:
The Ayahuasca News clinical team
