Peyote is collected for legal sacramental use by members of the Native American Church. Only members of federally recognized tribes have the clear legal right to use peyote for traditional or religious purposes.

In fact, the Navajo tribe members who regularly used peyote actually scored significantly better on several measures of overall mental health than did subjects from the same tribe who were not members of the religious group and did not use the hallucinogen, according to a study published in Biological Psychiatry.

"We found no evidence that these Native Americans had residual neurocognitive problems," says first author John Halpern, MD, of McLean Hospital's Biological Psychiatry Laboratory. "Despite lifelong participation in the peyote church, they performed just as well on mental tests as those who had never used peyote."

The study was funded, in part, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Better Mental Health Scores

The peyote users scored better on several measures of the Rand Mental Health Inventory (RMHI), a test used to diagnose psychological problems and determine overall mental health, notes Dr. Halpern. Among the RMHI scales are measures of anxiety, depression, loss of behavioral or emotional control, and psychological distress.

However, the better scores among peyote users were not necessarily attributable to the use of peyote itself, he emphasizes, but more likely due to the social and psychological benefits of being members of the Native American Church (NAC) community.

The five-year study involved 61 members of the Native American Church who regularly used the hallucinogenic cactus. Each had ingested it at least 100 times in religious practice.

The regular users were compared on a battery of tests with 79 Navajos who reported minimal peyote use and 36 tribe members who reported past problems with alcohol but were sober throughout the course of the study.

Former Alcohol Users Scored Worst

The former alcohol users scored significantly worse, compared to the other two groups, on every scale of the mental health test and on two tests that looked at memory.

"Within the peyote group, total lifetime peyote use was not significantly associated with neuropsychological performance," the researchers conclude. "We found no evidence of psychological or cognitive deficits among Native Americans using peyote regularly in a religious setting."

The conclusions should not be generalized to those who use hallucinogenic drugs in illicit settings, say the authors. There are 300,000 Native Americans who regularly use peyote as a religious sacrament and are allowed to do so by law.

"This study applies only to Native Americans in this church," notes Harrison G. Pope, Jr., MD, director of McLean's Biological Psychiatry Laboratory and senior author of the study. "From our data, we cannot say what the effects of peyote might be in any other group."