Glossary: Psychedelic Medicine

A traditional bone setter, found throughout Mexico and South America, who specializes in assessing and treating musculoskeletal injuries using manual techniques, massage, splinting, and traditional remedies.

An abnormal sensitivity to everyday sounds that causes ordinary environmental noises to be perceived as uncomfortably loud or painful.

A severe elevation in blood pressure that may result in acute organ damage and requires immediate medical evaluation and treatment.

A shrub native to Central Africa whose root bark contains ibogaine and related alkaloids. Iboga has long been used sacramentally in the Bwiti spiritual tradition for initiation, healing, and divination.

The principal psychoactive alkaloid found in iboga root bark. Ibogaine has unique psychedelic, dissociative, and oneirogenic (dream-like) properties and is being investigated as a treatment for opioid and other substance use disorders. It carries significant cardiac risks, including QT prolongation.

A misinterpretation or distortion of an actual external sensory stimulus.

The right of Indigenous peoples to govern the collection, ownership, application, interpretation, storage, and sharing of data derived from their peoples, territories, cultures, and knowledge systems according to their own laws and governance.

Holistic systems of knowledge that integrate spirituality, ecology, medicine, language, culture, governance, and community relationships. These systems emphasize interconnectedness rather than separating physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of life.

Research approaches grounded in Indigenous worldviews, relational accountability, reciprocity, community priorities, and Indigenous governance rather than exclusively Western scientific paradigms.

An ongoing process in which individuals voluntarily agree to treatment or research after receiving understandable information regarding benefits, risks, alternatives, confidentiality, and the right to withdraw.

The ongoing process of making sense of and incorporating insights, emotions, memories, and behavioral changes following an altered state into daily life.

The psychotherapeutic process of helping individuals understand, consolidate, and apply insights, emotions, memories, and behavioral changes arising from altered-state experiences into daily life.

Legal rights protecting creative works, inventions, publications, and other forms of intellectual creation.

The ethical principle of fairness in access to care, distribution of resources, research participation, and protection from discrimination or exploitation.

A ceremonial beverage prepared from the root of a Pacific Island plant. Its active constituents, kavalactones, produce anxiolytic and muscle-relaxant effects primarily through modulation of GABA and other neurotransmitter systems. Kava is traditionally used for social, ceremonial, and medicinal purposes.