A RARE CASE: AYAHUASCA TEA INTOXICATION

Year 2019, Volume: 10 Issue: 3, 75 - 77, 01.07.2019

Selman Yeniocak Asım Kalkan Tuğba Aguş Ahmet Demirel İbrahim Akkoç Burak Katipoglu

https://doi.org/10.33706/jemcr.609100

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Objective: Ayahuasca tea contains N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) found in the leaves of the Psychotria viridis vine and -carbolines found in Banisteriopsis caapi.

Case Report: A 59-year-old man was brought to the emergency department due to hallucinations, agitated behavior, aggression , nausea and vomiting developing 1.5 h after drinking approximately one tea glassful of Ayahuasca tea. Hypertension and mydriasis were determined, while blood, EKG and chest x-ray were normal. Symptomatic treatment was administered , and the patient was discharged following 24-hclinical observation in the emergency department.

Discussion: it has been sugg ested that DMT exhibits anxiolytic effects in low doses, but that hallucinogenic effects emerge when taken in large doses. in order to be effective when taken orally, DMT must be used with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Our case exhibited hallucinations and the majority of the autonomic symptoms associated with DMT use described in the literature. Ayahuasca tea is toxic. Uncontrolled use may even result in mortality.

Conclusion: Emergency physicians should consider Ayahuasca tea ingestion in patients presenting to the emergency department with agitation, hypertension, mydriasis and, particularly, hallucination .

Keywords

teaintoxication, Ayahuasca, hallucination

References

• 1. Amerikan Psikiyatri Birliği. Ruhsal Bozuklukların Tanısal ve Sayımsal Elkitabı Yeniden Gözden Geçirilmiş Tam Metin , 4. baskı (DSM-IV-TR). Köroğlu E (Çeviri ed.)Ankara: Hekimler Yayın Birliği. 2007. p. 267-418.
• 2. Ciprian-Ollivier J, Cetkovich-Bakmas MG. Altered consciousness states and endogenous psychoses: a common molecular pathway? Schizophr Res 1997; 28: 257-65.
• 3. DMT.Hallucinogens Part 2. Ask Pat. htt p:// askpat.colostate .edu/ ViewHotTopic. aspx? HotTopiclD=38#5.
• 4. Gable RS. Risk assessment of ritual use of oral dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmala alkaloids. Addiction 2007; 102: 24-34.
• 5. Umut G, Küçükparlak i, Özgen G, Türkcan A. Düşünen Adam Psikiyatrive Nörolojik Bilimler Dergisi 2011; 24: 246-50.
• 6. Heise CW, Brooks DE. Ayahuasca Exposure: Descriptive Analysis of Calls to US Poison Control Centers from 2005 to 2015. J Med Toxicol 2017; 13:245-8.
• 7. Jacob MS, Presti DE. Endogenous psychoactive tryptamines reconsider ed: an anxiolytic role for dimethyltryptamine . Med Hypotheses 2005; 64: 930-7.
• 8. McKenna DJ. Clinical investigations of the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca: rationale and regulatory challenges. Pharmacol Ther 2004; 102: 111-29.
• 9. Richardson WH, Slone CM, Michels JE. Herbal drugs of abuse : an emerging problem. Emerg Med Clin North Am 2007; 25: 435-57.