Ayahuasca For OCD: No Published Trial, And The Taper Comes First
Ayahuasca for OCD has no published trial behind it. No study has given ayahuasca to people with OCD and measured what happened. The closest thing is a 2023 survey of 174 people with OCD symptoms, and only about 13 of them had ever drunk it. The psychedelic with real OCD data is psilocybin, from 3 small trials. And if you take an SSRI or clomipramine, your decision starts with that drug. Those drugs and the ayahuasca vine don’t mix, so for an SSRI the clock starts 6 to 8 weeks before any ceremony.
I co-founded Cusco Ayahuasca Retreats in 2017, so read this knowing which side we sell. We’ve hosted about 2,000 guests at 2,900 metres in Peru’s Sacred Valley. This page still tells you when not to come. For some people with OCD, staying home is the right call.
Can Ayahuasca Help With OCD?
Nobody knows yet. No trial has tested it, and the only survey that asked people with OCD about it found too few drinkers to measure anything.
Ayahuasca for OCD means drinking ayahuasca, a brew of the caapi vine and chacruna leaf, to ease obsessions and compulsions. No clinical trial has tested it. The brew’s DMT acts on serotonin 2A receptors, and the vine blocks an enzyme called MAO, so it shouldn’t be combined with SSRIs or clomipramine.
You’ll read that ayahuasca helps OCD because it works on serotonin. That overlap is the problem. SSRIs, the first-choice drugs for OCD, keep more serotonin active between nerve cells. The vine blocks the enzyme that clears it. Together they can push serotonin too high, a reaction called serotonin syndrome.
What people report doesn’t settle it either. In that 2023 survey, people with OCD named classic psychedelics as the only drugs that eased their symptoms. 92% of that group had used psilocybin. Ayahuasca users were too few to study on their own.
What Has Been Tested For OCD So Far
Psilocybin has been tested in people with OCD. Ayahuasca hasn’t. This table lists every study I could find with a number attached. I’ve added each design, because design decides how much a result can tell you.
| Study | What was given | Who took part | Design | What it found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arizona, 2006 | Psilocybin, up to 4 single doses | 9 people with OCD | Doses rose in a set order, plus 1 tiny dose given blind at a random session; no placebo group | Scores fell 23% to 100% in all 9 at some point, with no clear link to dose; tracked only to 24 hours |
| University of Arizona, 2026 | Psilocybin, up to 8 weekly doses | 15 people with OCD | Blinded for 4 weeks with 5 per group, then everyone on high dose | 73.3% responded and 40% were in remission by week 8 |
| Yale, reported in 2025 | 1 dose of psilocybin | Adults whose OCD hadn’t responded to standard treatment | Randomized against a niacin placebo | A bigger symptom drop than placebo at 48 hours |
| Paris Brain Institute, 2023 | Any psychoactive drug | 174 people with OCD symptoms | Online survey, self-reported | About 13 had used ayahuasca, too few to measure; 10% reported worse OCD |
| Brazilian church study, 2012 | Ayahuasca, 15 or more years of regular use | 127 church members and 115 controls | Observational, not people with OCD | Lower obsessive-compulsive scores in the ayahuasca group |
The 2026 trial is the one to know. A 15-person trial from the University of Arizona came out in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in March 2026. For 4 blinded weeks, people with OCD got weekly psilocybin or lorazepam, a sedative. Psilocybin lowered OCD scores. Lorazepam didn’t. Then everyone got 4 more high doses. By week 8, 73.3% had a drop of 35% or more on the Y-BOCS, the standard OCD scale, and 40% were in remission. The gains shrank by 6 months but stayed large, and nobody had a serious side effect.
Read the 73.3% with care. It was measured after the blinded part ended, once everyone had moved to high-dose psilocybin. None of it transfers to ayahuasca on its own, either. Psilocybin isn’t an MAO inhibitor, and these doses were given in a research clinic, not a ceremony.
The only study that asked people with OCD about ayahuasca was an online survey from the Paris Brain Institute. It ran in Scientific Reports in 2023. Of 174 respondents, about 13 had used ayahuasca, and about 4 named it the drug with the biggest effect on their OCD. That was too few to measure. Every ayahuasca user in the sample had also taken other drugs.
The only ayahuasca data on obsessive-compulsive symptoms of any kind comes from Brazil. A 2012 study in PLOS ONE compared 127 long-term members of 2 ayahuasca churches with 115 matched churchgoers who’d drunk it 5 times or fewer. The ayahuasca group scored lower on the obsessive-compulsive part of a standard symptom checklist. The gap held a year later. None of them were recruited for OCD. And the authors point out that people who did badly may have left the church before anyone measured them.
Can You Drink Ayahuasca If You Take An SSRI Or Clomipramine?
Not at the same time. We ask for 6 weeks off an SSRI, 8 for fluoxetine. Your own prescriber runs the taper, and our physician signs off before your place is confirmed.
The reason is chemistry. The caapi vine contains harmala alkaloids, which block MAO, the enzyme that breaks down both DMT and serotonin. In 1998, Callaway and Grob warned in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs that ayahuasca with SSRIs could cause serotonin syndrome.
Clomipramine, an older antidepressant, is the other classic OCD drug. Its FDA label approves it for obsessions and compulsions in OCD. The same label rules out psychiatric MAO inhibitors within 14 days of it and warns about serotonin syndrome. It doesn’t mention ayahuasca. We treat the vine as an MAO inhibitor anyway, because that’s what it is.
| If you take | For example | Why it matters | Our minimum gap | Who signs off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| An SSRI | fluoxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, escitalopram | Serotonin syndrome risk with the vine | 6 weeks; 8 for fluoxetine | Your prescriber runs the taper; Dr. Medina confirms |
| Clomipramine | Anafranil | Its label rules out MAO inhibitors within 14 days | Set by Dr. Medina with your prescriber | Your prescriber runs the taper; Dr. Medina confirms |
| An SNRI | venlafaxine, duloxetine | The same serotonin risk | 6 weeks | Your prescriber runs the taper; Dr. Medina confirms |
| An antipsychotic added to your SSRI | aripiprazole, risperidone | The SSRI it’s added to still needs the full taper | Case by case, on top of the SSRI taper | Your prescriber and Dr. Medina |
| Lithium | Current use rules you out | Not accepted while you take it | Dr. Medina | |
| A benzodiazepine | clonazepam, lorazepam | Reviewed case by case | Case by case | Dr. Medina |
I learned this the hard way. In 2018, before we had a doctor on staff, I accepted a guest on a low dose of sertraline. She said she would “skip a few doses.” She spent the night with a racing heart, agitation and tremors, made worse by the altitude. She recovered by morning, and within 2 months Dr. Medina had joined us. I told the whole story in our ketamine comparison.
Mistakes still happen. In 2023, a guest’s undisclosed SSRI came to light in the middle of a retreat. We adjusted the dose and nothing went wrong. Stopping an SSRI too late or too fast is the second most common preparation mistake we see. ADHD drugs, tramadol and St. John’s wort each have their own window in our medication taper table.
Never stop an OCD drug on your own.
Why We Weigh The Taper Before The Ceremony
If your OCD is stable on medication, stopping it carries more documented risk than ayahuasca carries documented benefit. That’s our position. It means some people reading this shouldn’t book.
OCD often returns when its medication stops, and the drug may not work as well the second time. A 2001 study from the University of Turin followed 81 people whose OCD came back within 6 months of stopping a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. They went back on the same drug, at the same dose, for 24 weeks. It helped again, but fewer people responded than the first time.
Even the 2026 psilocybin trial had to plan around this. Anyone on antidepressants, lithium or antipsychotics had to stop at least 2 weeks before the first dose. 6 of the 15 needed a supervised taper. When the authors looked back at the data, everyone they classed as a non-responder had recently come off a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. That’s a small, after-the-fact finding, and the authors present it as tentative. It still points the same way.
The trade looks different if your medication isn’t working. If SSRIs and ERP haven’t helped you, there’s less to lose by stopping, and the question opens up. Have that conversation with your psychiatrist first and Dr. Medina second. If your psychiatrist says your medication can’t be tapered, ayahuasca is off the table.
Can Ayahuasca Make OCD Worse?
It can. In the 2023 Paris survey, 10% of participants said their OCD got worse after taking a psychoactive drug.
The largest ayahuasca dataset points the same way. A 2025 reanalysis of the Global Ayahuasca Survey, published in PLOS Mental Health, looked at 5,400 of its 10,836 respondents. People with a history of anxiety or depression reported more adverse mental states after ayahuasca. A history of depression went with a rise in almost every adverse state the survey asked about. It didn’t ask about OCD by name. In the Paris survey, though, 42% of people with OCD symptoms also reported depression.
We can’t promise your obsessions stay quiet in a ceremony, and nobody should. If fear takes over at 2 AM, a facilitator reaches your mat first and speaks to you before touching you. One of our 3 healers comes to sing directly to you. If your breathing turns fast or you stop responding, Dr. Medina gets the call on the walkie-talkie and reaches your mat in 2 to 3 minutes with oxygen.
Fear of losing control has its own research, and we covered ayahuasca ego death separately. For other worries, we checked 8 fears about ayahuasca against the data.
What 4 Nights In Our Maloca Look Like With OCD
The room is dark for most of the night, and you share it with up to 14 guests. Both can be hard on some OCD themes, so tell us about yours on the screening call.
Ceremonies happen in our maloca, an 8-sided stone and timber ceremony house. They fall on nights 4, 6, 9 and 11 of a 12-day retreat, after 2 days to adjust to the altitude. Each runs from about 8:30 PM to 3 AM, and the brew itself lasts 4 to 6 hours. The table below shows what the room asks of you.
| What happens | Why it can be hard with OCD | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| The candle goes out at 9 PM, and the room stays near-dark until about 3 AM | You can’t check anything by sight | Someone is within arm’s reach of every mat all night |
| No phones or watches in the maloca | No way to check the time | Phones are collected on arrival, with 30 minutes of use on day 6 |
| Purging into a lined bucket, in a room of up to 14 guests | Contamination fears | A facilitator quietly swaps your bucket |
| You stay on your mat and leave only with an escort | Washing or checking rituals need you to move | A facilitator walks you out and back |
| Healers may touch your head or shoulders while singing | Touch can set off contamination or harm fears | Nobody touches you without asking out loud, every time |
| Your mat is assigned | Some people need things predictable | Your spot stays the same for all 4 ceremonies |
If contamination is your theme, purging is the part to plan for. It usually lasts 30 to 90 minutes in the first half of the night, and it eases with each ceremony.
Night 1 can be quiet. Some guests whose first night was quiet had their deepest night later. We wrote up the first night against the fourth on a separate page.
Tell Patricia, our senior facilitator, what your OCD is about. Every applicant gets a 30 to 45 minute video call with her before anything is confirmed, and that call is the place to raise it.
Who With OCD Should Not Drink Ayahuasca?
Anyone whose OCD is stable on medication they’d have to stop, or whose psychiatrist says that drug can’t be tapered. The same goes for anyone with a history of psychosis or bipolar I.
Our automatic no’s also cover schizophrenia, current lithium, an SSRI or SNRI without a finished taper, and active suicidal thoughts with a plan. A parent, sibling or child with a psychiatric history rules you out if you’ve never taken a psychedelic. Altitude adds its own conditions at 2,900 metres, and our full exclusion list covers them.
We turn away 13% of applicants outright. Another 4% to 6% get a conditional yes whose conditions they never meet.
If you’re having thoughts of suicide today, don’t wait for a retreat. Call your local emergency number, or in the US, call or text 988.
Ayahuasca For OCD Vs ERP, Medication, TMS And DBS In 2026
ERP therapy and SSRIs are the standard first treatments for OCD. Deep TMS and deep brain stimulation are FDA-authorized for OCD that hasn’t responded to them. Psilocybin has 2 small randomized trials, and ayahuasca has none.
| Treatment | What it is | Where it stands for OCD |
|---|---|---|
| ERP | Therapy where you face a trigger and don’t do the compulsion | A standard first treatment |
| SSRIs | Daily antidepressants, often at higher doses than for other conditions | A standard first treatment |
| Clomipramine | An older antidepressant | FDA-approved for OCD |
| Deep TMS | Magnetic pulses through the scalp, in a clinic | FDA-authorized since August 2018 |
| Deep brain stimulation | Electrodes implanted in the brain | FDA humanitarian exemption since February 2009, for severe OCD after at least 3 failed SSRIs |
| Psilocybin | A psychedelic, given in research clinics | 2 small randomized trials, not approved |
| Ayahuasca | A psychedelic brew, drunk in ceremony | 0 trials, not approved |
The FDA authorized a deep TMS device for OCD in August 2018, for people whose OCD hadn’t responded to standard treatment.
ERP is the one I’d want lined up for after a retreat. A 2004 study in Depression and Anxiety followed people after their OCD treatment ended. Those who’d responded to intensive ERP, with or without clomipramine, did better over the next 12 weeks than those who’d responded to clomipramine alone. A ceremony can show you something about a fear. ERP is how you practise not obeying it.
After you leave, our integration team calls you in week 1 and again in week 3. Our referral list has 25-plus integration-aware therapists in 6 countries. If you want ERP afterward, find an ERP therapist near home before you fly. Which effects outlast a retreat is its own question, and we tracked what lasts and fades on a separate page.
What We Measure, And What We Can’t Tell You
We don’t measure OCD, so we can’t tell you whether our guests with OCD got better.
Since 2020, every guest fills in 2 standard scales: the PHQ-9 for depression and the PCL-5 for PTSD. They do it at intake, on day 12 and at 3 months. About 310 guests have all 3 sets. Neither scale asks about obsessions or compulsions.
If a center tells you its guests’ OCD improved, ask which scale it used. The standard one is the Y-BOCS, the scale the 2026 psilocybin trial used. By contrast, the depression research on ayahuasca at least has 1 randomized trial.
If you’re weighing ayahuasca for OCD while you’re on an SSRI or clomipramine, talk to your prescriber first. Then apply for screening, list every medication by name with its dose, and tell us what your OCD is about. Dr. Medina reads every application within 72 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ayahuasca for OCD work?
No published trial has tested it, so nobody knows. In a 2023 survey of 174 people with OCD symptoms, only about 13 had used ayahuasca, too few to measure. The psychedelic with OCD trial data is psilocybin: in a 15-person trial published in 2026, 73.3% had responded by week 8.
Can you take ayahuasca for OCD while on an SSRI?
No. The vine’s MAO-blocking alkaloids and SSRIs together can cause serotonin syndrome. We ask for 6 weeks off an SSRI, 8 for fluoxetine. Your prescriber runs the taper, and our physician signs off before your place is confirmed.
What about clomipramine (Anafranil) and ayahuasca?
Clomipramine’s FDA label approves it for OCD, rules out psychiatric MAO inhibitors within 14 days of it and warns about serotonin syndrome. The label doesn’t mention ayahuasca, but the vine is an MAO inhibitor. Any taper is planned with your prescriber, and our physician reviews it before your place is confirmed.
Can ayahuasca make OCD worse?
It can. In a 2023 survey of 174 people with OCD symptoms, 10% reported worse symptoms after taking a psychoactive drug. A 2025 reanalysis of the Global Ayahuasca Survey found that people with a history of anxiety or depression reported more adverse mental states after ayahuasca.
Does psilocybin research on OCD apply to ayahuasca?
Only loosely. Both act on serotonin 2A receptors, but ayahuasca also blocks MAO and is drunk in an all-night ceremony instead of a research clinic. In the 2026 psilocybin trial, anyone on antidepressants had to stop at least 2 weeks before the first dose.
Who with OCD should not drink ayahuasca?
Anyone whose psychiatrist says their medication can’t be tapered, and anyone with a history of psychosis or bipolar I, or on lithium now. We’d also tell you to stay home if your OCD is stable on medication you’d have to stop. We turn away 13% of applicants outright.
This page on ayahuasca for OCD is information, not medical advice. Don’t start, stop or change any medication without your prescriber.