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About this resource
This page closely follows the retrospective questionnaire study published by Schmidt and colleagues in 2020. Its central question was whether the acute experience of kambô involves changes in perception and thought resembling those of serotonergic psychedelics or is experienced primarily as an intense physical reaction. It also examined subjective changes 2–3 weeks after the experience.
The study measured recollections of 1 representative past session. It did not prospectively measure secretion constituents, blood concentrations, brain activity, or clinical symptoms. These are psychological data about a ritual involving whole secretion, not a human demonstration of central effects from individual peptides such as dermorphin or deltorphin.
Study design
Participants were recruited through a drug-information event in Berlin and kambô practitioners and returned anonymous paper questionnaires by mail. The researchers received 27 sets, excluded 5 that did not meet the reliability criteria of the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), and analyzed acute effects in 22 participants. Mean age was 39.0 years, 10 participants (45.5%) were women, and mean lifetime kambô experience was 4.7 sessions.
Acute effects were measured with the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale, PCI, Mystical Experience Questionnaire, and Challenging Experience Questionnaire. Subacute effects were assessed with the Persisting Effects Questionnaire and Connectedness Scale among people who responded 2–3 weeks after their representative session. Of 14 relevant respondents, inappropriate responses were excluded, leaving 13 participants for each scale.
Participants also reported the practitioner, setting, number of burn points, and duration of their representative session. Practitioners were alternative-health practitioners, Western healers, or neo-shamans for 15 participants, Indigenous shamans for 2, and laypeople for 3. The mean number of application points was 7 ± 2, and 30–59 minutes was the most common duration, reported by 11 participants.
Content
Many participants had experience with other psychoactive substances and ritual plants. 15 (68.2%) reported experience with serotonergic psychedelics, and 19 (86.4%) with ritual plants or traditional substances including ayahuasca, peyote, San Pedro, psilocybin, and ibogaine. This background provides information for subjective comparisons, but the sample does not represent the general population.
The acute scales assessed altered consciousness, self-boundaries, anxiety, visual and auditory changes, cognitive control, body image, sense of time, mystical meaning, challenging experience, and multiple other dimensions. The authors presented means in a form comparable with existing altered-consciousness data, but they did not concurrently randomize a kambô group and placebo group.
Subacute scales asked about attitudes toward life and self, mood, sociality, behavior, and connectedness with nature, other people, the body, and values. They describe how participants interpreted their experience; they are not clinical outcomes measuring diagnostic improvement, physical function, or long-term prognosis.
Results
Acute psychological effects were mild to moderate overall. The authors reported that perceptual distortions, complex visual imagery, and large changes in thought content—prominent with typical psychedelics—were not strong with kambô. 5 of 22 participants said kambô produced “intoxication” or a “high,” but this was not the majority. Physical distress, reduced control, anxiety, and related items were not 0, so the acute experience also cannot be simplified as “non-psychoactive.”
Among the 13 subacute respondents, positive attitudes toward life and self, positive mood, prosocial change, and behavioral change were rated highly in subjective reports. 6 reported strong spiritual significance, and 7 placed the experience among the 10 most personally meaningful experiences of their lives. 8 reported a slight increase in well-being or life satisfaction, and 5 a moderate to very large increase.
These values are recollections from a small sample that chose experiences to report. The study did not separate whether positive evaluations arose from the secretion’s direct pharmacology, ritual setting, expectations, the relationship with the practitioner, or natural history. Positive subacute self-reports cannot be reinterpreted as treatment effects or lasting health benefits.
Limitations
The sample was small—22 for acute and 13 for subacute analyses—and recruitment came from a kambô-related event and practitioners. Anonymity may support candid responses, but it prevents verification of diagnosis, administered substance, number of sessions, and co-used substances through medical records. Asking participants to select a representative or meaningful session may bias the study toward memorable experiences.
Every assessment was retrospective, without a pretreatment baseline, blinded control, or randomization. Expectations, ritual setting, and participants’ spiritual orientation may have influenced responses, and the authors themselves stated that randomized placebo-controlled research would be needed for a final judgment. With multiple scales and tests in a small sample, individual p values should not be treated as independent confirmation.
Safety
The study’s main purpose was to examine psychological effects, not the incidence of serious physical adverse events. Findings of mild-to-moderate psychological changes do not negate separate safety problems such as vomiting, circulatory changes, hyponatremia, syncope, and organ injury. Because the sample was restricted to people able to respond, emergency cases and deaths could not be captured.
The research cannot establish a safe number of points, application method, eligible population, or use for disease. Subjective spiritual significance is not a substitute measure for medical safety or efficacy.
Source and rights
Original source: Schmidt TT, et al. Acute and subacute psychoactive effects of Kambô, the secretion of the Amazonian Giant Maki Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor): retrospective reports. Scientific Reports. 2020;10:21544. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78527-4. PMID 33298999; PMCID PMC7725827.
The original article is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). This page follows the research structure, sample, principal results, and limitations without reproducing the complete questionnaires, tables, figures, or individual responses verbatim.