Research on ayahuasca and grief is testing whether psychedelic experiences, paired with structured psychotherapy, could help people navigate severe distress after loss. A controlled study published in Scientific Reports found greater symptom reductions with ayahuasca-assisted therapy than with the same psychotherapy alone, although its design cannot establish that ayahuasca caused the difference.
The findings introduce a possible direction for bereavement research: supporting emotional processing during the first year after a death, while recognizing that grief itself is a normal human response.
Where Established Grief Care Leaves Questions
Many bereaved people gradually adapt through personal relationships, community support, and time. Others develop persistent, disabling symptoms that require targeted care.
Grief-focused psychotherapy has supporting evidence. A randomized trial of 395 adults found that specialized complicated grief treatment improved outcomes, while adding citalopram did not significantly improve grief response, although it helped depressive symptoms.
However, treating established, persistent grief and preventing later difficulties during early bereavement are different challenges. The ayahuasca study examined severe symptoms within the first year, rather than enrolling only people with a confirmed prolonged grief disorder diagnosis.
Testing Ayahuasca And Grief Within Psychotherapy
Researchers enrolled 84 adults experiencing severe grief after losing a close family member within the previous 12 months. Participants entered three groups of 28: meaning reconstruction therapy with ayahuasca, meaning reconstruction therapy alone, or no study treatment.
Meaning reconstruction therapy helps people make sense of the death, reconsider their relationship with the deceased, and rebuild identity after loss.
Both psychotherapy groups were offered nine weekly online sessions. The ayahuasca group additionally received two planned, supported psychedelic sessions in Barcelona, with individual integration afterward. Not everyone completed both administrations.
This structure matters because the study evaluated a therapeutic package. It did not test ayahuasca taken independently.
Larger Symptom Reductions Persisted At Follow-Up
All three groups improved, including participants receiving no study treatment. That finding underscores how grief can change naturally over time.
Nevertheless, the combined-treatment group showed greater reductions on two self-report grief measures after treatment and at three-month follow-up.
On the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief, average scores in the combined group fell from approximately 52 to 33 at follow-up. Scores declined from about 53 to 43 with psychotherapy alone and from 51 to 45 without treatment.
The combined group also reported improvements in post-traumatic growth and psychological quality of life. These secondary findings were less consistent across comparisons and assessment points than the grief symptom findings.
Why Improvement Does Not Establish Causation
Participants were assigned sequentially rather than randomly, and treatment was open-label. Expectations, recruitment timing, additional facilitator contact, and other differences could therefore influence outcomes.
Most participants had previous psychedelic experience, limiting how confidently the results apply to people unfamiliar with these substances.
The study also measured symptoms rather than demonstrating prevention of a future disorder. Three months of follow-up cannot establish whether benefits endure over years or reduce later diagnostic risk.
How Emotional Processing Might Change
Ayahuasca combines DMT with compounds that inhibit monoamine oxidase, allowing DMT to remain active when taken orally. DMT acts primarily through serotonin 5-HT2A receptors.
The proposed psychological mechanism is especially relevant to grief: emotionally vivid experiences may help participants approach difficult memories, reconsider unresolved relationships, or develop new perspectives on life after loss.
Psychotherapy could help translate those experiences into everyday adaptation. However, this study did not establish which biological or psychological processes explained the observed changes.
A Research Signal Requiring Stronger Trials
The study’s distinctive contribution is its prospective comparison of combined treatment, psychotherapy alone, and untreated bereavement.
No serious adverse events were reported, but nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fainting, and anguish occurred. Participants were medically screened, so these findings do not establish safety across broader populations.
For the field, the next step is larger randomized research with longer follow-up and closer attention to expectations and treatment contact. Ayahuasca-assisted therapy offers a preliminary signal that some people may process grief differently within supported treatment. Whether it provides a reliable, lasting advantage remains an open clinical question.
Citations
- Soto-Angona, O., et al. (2025). Ayahuasca-Assisted Meaning Reconstruction Therapy As An Early Resource For Bereavement: A Non-Randomized Clinical Trial. Scientific Reports, 15, 32158.
- Shear, M. K., et al. (2016). Optimizing Treatment Of Complicated Grief: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(7), 685–694.
Explore more at https://www.interventionalpsychiatry.org/
