Traditional Amazonian medicine in addiction treatment : qualitative results
Abstract
Traditional Amazonian medicine, and in particular the psychoactive substance ayahuasca, has generated significant research interest along with the recent revival of psychedelic medicine. Previously we published within-treatment quantitative results from a residential addiction treatment centre that predominately employs Peruvian traditional Amazonian medicine, and here we follow up that work with a qualitative study of within-treatment patient experiences. Open-ended interviews with 9 inpatients were conducted from 2014 to 2015, and later analysed using thematic analysis. Our findings support the possibility of therapeutic effects from Amazonian medicine, but also highlight the complexity of Amazonian medical practices, suggesting that the richness of such traditions should not be reduced to the use of ayahuasca only.
Citation
O’Shaughnessy , D M , Sarnyai , Z , Quirk , F & Rodd , R 2022 , ' Traditional Amazonian medicine in addiction treatment : qualitative results ' , SSM - Qualitative Research in Health , vol. 2 , 100086 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100086
Publication
SSM - Qualitative Research in Health
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2667-3215Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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