Ayahuasca for PTSD with Dr. Simon Ruffell MBChB, MRCPsych, PhD

In this episode Dr. Simon Ruffell joins to discuss the research on ayahuasca for PTSD. Dr. Ruffell is a psychiatrist, researcher, and student of curanderismo (Amazonian shamanism) working at the intersection of Western psychiatry, traditional plant medicine, and Indigenous knowledge systems. He is Executive Director of Onaya, Lecturer in Psychology and Psychedelics at the University of Exeter, and Chief Medical Officer of MINDS, with a focus on integrative and relational approaches to healing and consciousness.

In this conversation, Dr. Ruffell explores the emerging research on ayahuasca as a treatment for PTSD, drawing on both Western scientific models and Indigenous Shipibo knowledge systems. He outlines how ayahuasca may work through mechanisms such as increased neuroplasticity, disruption of rigid predictive models, and potential epigenetic shifts related to stress and trauma, while emphasizing that these biological explanations exist alongside Indigenous understandings of "cleaning ancestral lines." Sharing preliminary findings from his ongoing research with military veterans in collaboration with Heroic Hearts Project, Dr. Ruffell discusses significant reductions in PTSD symptoms at six-month follow-up, the powerful role of community and ceremony, and the ethical complexities of studying sacred practices through Western scientific tools. He closes with a moving story of a veteran whose healing journey illustrates both the promise and the limits of psychedelic medicine when embedded in relational and cultural context.

In this episode, you'll hear:

Western scientific theories for how ayahuasca may alleviate PTSD
How trauma-related epigenetic changes may be transmitted across generations
Preliminary results from Dr. Ruffell's study of ayahuasca for veterans diagnosed with PTSD
The role of community bonding and peer support among veterans in maintaining therapeutic gains
Why ayahuasca research in the Amazon includes a broader plant-based healing system—not just the brew itself
How Indigenous healers interpret epigenetic findings as confirmation of longstanding ancestral frameworks
The ethical considerations of bringing Western measurement tools (like EEG) into sacred ceremonial contexts

Quotes:

"This is what I find most interesting about our research—that it is cutting edge science but at the same time, when we conduct it with indigenous healers, we get a whole new perspective on what could be happening when it comes to interpreting the results and also making decisions of what to research as well." [14:09]

"According to measures of PTSD on the scales that we're looking at, over 80% of the participants that were scoring for PTSD before their ayahuasca retreats and no longer scoring for PTSD at that six month follow up. So it's not just immediately after the ayahuasca retreats. It's six months later. And that's super, super encouraging." [15:52]

"When we take things to the lab, one of the reasons that we might see the effect size diminishing is because we no longer have shamanism, basically, which is exerting a huge effect." [16:55]

"Traditionally what would happen is that the curandero would drink ayahuasca and the participants would just be there and the curandero would use the visions that they had with ayahuasca to look into the participants and to diagnose them. And then the healing would come through them singing their medicinal chants, which are the icaros. And then afterwards they would give them a prescription of plants or whatever it is that they needed. And sometimes the prescription would be to drink ayahuasca, but most of the time it wouldn't be. [27:18]

"You can't separate like DMT, in my eyes, from the rest of the compounds in ayahuasca, from the ceremony, from the jungle. That, in my opinion, is what makes up Shipibo. Otherwise you just have a bunch of chemicals." [28:20]

Links:

Dr. Ruffell's website

Dr. Ruffell on LinkedIn

Dr. Ruffell on Instagram

Onaya website

Onaya Science website

Onaya on LinkedIn

Onaya on Instagram

Previous episode: Can Ayahuasca Heal PTSD? with Former Army Ranger Jesse Gould

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