Helena Dorothea Aicher

• Doctor of Psychology
• University of Zurich

Background: Psychedelics are known to profoundly alter perception and self-referential processing, yet their specific effects on face recognition - a key aspect of social cognition remain underexplored. Objective: This study investigates the effects of an ayahuasca-inspired novel DMT/HAR (N,N-dimethyltryptamine/Harmine) formulation and Harmine alon...

The renewed interest in psychedelics as treatments for mental health disorders is often referred to as the “Psychedelic Renaissance.” This article assesses whether this resurgence truly constitutes a paradigm shift in psychiatry, as some proponents claim, or if it should be viewed as an integration of existing therapeutic approaches. We explore his...

Background In recent years, both meditation and psychedelics have attracted rapidly increasing scientific interest. While the current state of evidence suggests the promising potential of psychedelics, such as psilocybin, to enhance meditative training, it remains equivocal whether these effects are specifically bound to psilocybin or if other clas...

The potent hallucinogen N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) has garnered significant interest in recent years due to its profound effects on consciousness and its therapeutic psychopotential. DMT is an integral (but not exclusive) psychoactive alkaloid in the Amazonian plant-based brew ayahuasca, in which admixture of several β-carboline monoamine oxidase...

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Zur Beantwortung der Frage, ob Psychedelika eine therapeutische Wirkung bei psychischen Erkrankungen aufweisen, ist entscheidend, sich mit möglichen Wirkmechanismen auseinanderzusetzen. Solche können auf psychopharmakologischer, neurobiologischer, neurosystemischer und psychotherapeutischer Ebene beschrieben werden. Neben der klassi...

Rationale: Psychedelic research re-emerged from a period of suppression into the so-called psychedelic renaissance. In parallel, most media reporting has shifted from the overstatement of the risks of psychedelics to overly positive hype. As the empirical evidence is more equivocal than frequently portrayed, the conclusions about the effectiveness...

Zusammenfassung Seit den späten 1990er-Jahren erfahren Psychedelika eine Renaissance und ziehen international vermehrt die Aufmerksamkeit auf sich. Es gibt zunehmend wissenschaftliche Studien, die sich mit den Möglichkeiten und Risiken der Psychedelika-assistierten Therapie (PAT) befassen. Seit 2014 werden auf der Grundlage von Ausnahmebewilligunge...

Zusammenfassung Erste Studienergebnisse zeigen ein Potenzial von Psychedelika und 3,4-Methylendioxy-N-methylamphetamin (MDMA) für die Behandlung von affektiven Störungen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass die Ausbildung von Therapeut*innen von entscheidender Bedeutung ist, um diese Substanzen in der Psychedelika-assistierten Therapie...

Background There is growing scientific evidence for the therapeutic benefits of the Amazonian plant-based psychedelic “ayahuasca” for neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. However, there are certain challenges when incorporating botanical ayahuasca into biomedical research and clinical therapy environments. Formulations inspire...

Recently, the Amazonian plant medicine “ayahuasca”—containing the psychedelic compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and numerous β-carboline alkaloids, such as harmine—has been suggested to exhibit beneficial effects in patients with affective and other mental health disorders. Although ayahuasca ingestion is considered safe, its pharmacokinetics/p...

Background Ayahuasca is a psychoactive Amazonian brew which has emerging data indicating that it has antidepressant and anxiolytic properties. Methods This paper uses data from the Global Ayahuasca Project (GAP), which was undertaken across 2017-2020 and involved 11912 people, to examine the perceived effects of ayahuasca consumption on affective...

Bodily self-identification has shown to be easily altered through spatiotemporally congruent multimodal signals. While such manipulations are mostly studied through visuo-tactile or visuo-motor stimulation, here we investigated whether congruent visuo-olfactory cues might enhance illusory self-identification with an arbitrary object. Using virtual...

Rationale: Stimulation of serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptors by lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and related compounds such as psilocybin has previously been shown to increase primary process thinking – an ontologically and evolutionary early, implicit, associative, and automatic mode of thinking which is typically occurring during altered states of c...

State of consciousness at the time of the mental imagery task. The graph shows the score on each 5D-ASC subscale in each drug condition at time point T3 = 390 min after drug intake. LSD increased the score on all five 5D-ASC subscales. Ketanserin pre-treatment completely blocked all LSD-induced effects (all p = n.s.). Asterisks indicate significant...

Mental imagery experience. The graph shows the score on each visual analog subscale (VAS) in each drug condition. LSD increased VAS score for visual vividness and emotional arousal. Ketanserin pre-treatment completely blocked all LSD-induced effects (all p = n.s.). Asterisks indicate significant differences between LSD and placebo conditions (∗p <...