Cross-cultural Attitudes Towards Using Ayahuasca as an Alternative Treatment for PTSD: A Comparative Study of Attitudes in the MENA Region and Western Countries.

Abstract

This study attempted to answer the question “Are there differences in attitudes towards the acceptability of using Ayahuasca as an alternative treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among individuals in the MENA region compared to Western countries?” and whether there is an association between messaging and attitudes towards Ayahuasca’s use. Statistical analysis included 344 valid responses from participants recruited online from six countries representing two cultural regions: the MENA and Western countries. Cultural region shaped baseline attitudes towards Ayahuasca, with unexpectedly more favorable attitudes in the MENA than the Western group. Informational framing significantly influenced attitudes across cultural groups. As one of the first studies to include the MENA region in assessment of attitudes towards Ayahuasca, these findings were considered preliminary, establishing a baseline for future research. In examining underlying mechanisms of acceptability, two groups of predictors were identified. Proximal predictors of social-cognitive constructs emerged as the most significant predictors, including attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help and subjective norms. Meanwhile, distal predictors showed inconsistent associations, including religiosity and oneness beliefs, suggesting that culture and societal beliefs operate differently across the two cultural groups and across domains of use. Amongst the distal predictors, nature-relatedness was the most stable variable associated with acceptability, which retained significance even after proximal predictors were included in an exploratory model. Interestingly, perceived mental health stigma was not a predictor of acceptability, suggesting that Ayahuasca is viewed in a broader context beyond the conventional and Western mental health practices. Age was negatively associated with the acceptability of Ayahuasca, which is consistent with other studies on the use of psychedelics. This study highlighted the complex nature of cultural influences on the treatment acceptability of alternative and novel treatments, which operate directly and indirectly, and vary across cultural groups. The study proposes an integrative cross-cultural framework for treatment acceptability that includes cultural context, individual psychological and worldview dispositions, societal beliefs, cognitive constructs, and informational framing.