Ayahuasca has an acceptable safety profile in healthy people who have been properly screened and are working with an experienced healer in a controlled setting. Serious adverse events are rare in those conditions. The most common effects are nausea and vomiting, which traditional frameworks understand as therapeutic. The most preventable serious risks involve drug interactions, particularly with SSRIs, SNRIs, and other serotonergic medications, and psychiatric contraindications in people with personal or family histories of psychosis or mania (dos Santos et al., 2017; ICEERS, 2024). If you are healthy and properly screened, the risk profile is manageable. If you skip the screening, it is not.
