ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2018
Cortisol Modulation by Ayahuasca in Patients With Treatment Resistant Depression and Healthy Controls.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Predictors of therapeutic response to psychedelic-assisted therapy: A systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of ayahuasca in preclinical studies with animals: a systematic review.Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologica · 2025Pooled it
- Classic serotonergic psychedelics for mood and depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis of mood disorder patients and healthy participants.Psychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Rapid and sustained antidepressant effects of vaporized N,N-dimethyltryptamine: a phase 2a clinical trial in treatment-resistant depression.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Development of a Machine Learning-Based Model for Classifying Depression Using Physiological and Psychological Indicators.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- Predictors of the Effectiveness of Psychedelics in Treating Depression-A Scoping Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Preliminary analysis of ayahuasca-induced anatomical alterations in the somatosensory cortex of juvenile non-human primates (Callithrix jacchus) subjected to chronic stress.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Psilocybin and ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: clinical evidence, methodological constraints and ethical challenges: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Linking inflammatory and structural neuroimaging biomarkers in treatment-resistant depression: Current evidence and emerging hypotheses.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Psychedelic therapy and postpartum depression: priorities and prospects.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- The allostatic triage model of psychopathology (ATP Model): How reallocation of brain energetic resources under stress elicits psychiatric symptoms.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Narrating the psychoneuroimmunomodulatory properties of serotonin 5-HTActa neuropsychiatrica · 2025Review
- Is there a place for psychedelics in sports practice?Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2025Review
- Serotonergic psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT alters plasticity-related gene expression and generates anxiolytic effects in stressed mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Ayahuasca: pharmacology, safety, and therapeutic effects.CNS spectrums · 2024Review
- Review
- The Psychedelic Future of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Ayahuasca: A review of historical, pharmacological, and therapeutic aspects.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Review
- A Comprehensive Review of the Current Status of the Cellular Neurobiology of Psychedelics.Biology · 2023Review
- Transient Elevation of Plasma Glucocorticoids Supports Psilocybin-Induced Anxiolysis in Mice.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Major depression is a highly prevalent mood disorder, affecting about 350 million people, and around 30% of the patients are resistant to currently available antidepressant medications. Recent evidence from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) supports the rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of ayahuasca on plasma cortisol and awakening salivary cortisol response, in the same group of treatment-resistant patients (MD) and in healthy volunteers (C). Subjects received a single dose of ayahuasca or placebo (dosing session), and both plasma and awakening salivary cortisol response were measured at baseline (before dosing session) and 48 h after the dosing session. Baseline assessment (D0) showed blunted awakening salivary cortisol response and hypocortisolemia in patients, with respect to healthy controls. Salivary cortisol was also measured during dosing session, and we observed higher increases for both C and MD that ingested ayahuasca than placebo. After 48 h from the dosing session with ayahuasca, patients' awakening salivary cortisol response is similar to the ones detected in controls. No significant changes in plasma cortisol levels were observed 48 h after the sessions. Therefore, these findings point to new evidence on the modulation of salivary cortisol levels as a result of an ayahuasca session, both in healthy and depressive volunteers. Considering that cortisol acts in regulation of distinct physiological pathways, emotional and cognitive processes, it is assumed to be critically involved to the etiology of depression and its regulation seems to be important for the treatment and remission of major depression, ayahuasca use as antidepressant should be further investigated. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of psychedelics in the treatment of human mental disorders.
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