SWIM has come up with an interesting idea based on some experiences with a friend who had very positive results healing a psychotic condition with pharmahuasca. SWIMs friend described his normal mind state as a flood of voices. He has never been officially diagnosed as schizophrenic and his condition is still in question, but has nearly lost touch with reality a number of times. However after doing pharmahuasca this friend reported that the mental clarity after was like having his brain back. The flood went away for about a week until he had drank some alcohol.

Now here is my theory. Could people in certain psyhotic states or with certain psychotic conditions maybe have an overactive MAOI system (MAOI B i believe as thats the one predominant in the brain)? Has this ever been looked into? Too much MAOI means less monoamines in the brain which and for example amphetamine psychosis is caused by depletion of dopamine, also a condition of too little monoamines. Could an overactive MAOI system be assisting in precipitating mental illness? Could taking MAOI inhibitors change this even just once a week? I am sure research has been done on MAOI's and psychosis but has anyone heard of this kind of thing? Could by taking MAOI externally change the rate at which they are expressed in the brain (well lower their expression) and lead to a few days of relief from psychotic symptoms?

It could also be the other way around that psychotics or people who are more disposed to be psychotic has less active MAOI systems. Infact SWIM has found some papers that say there is evidence for this. How interesting...

SWIM thinks its more the MAOI then the DMT that did the helping but am not sure more tests are warranted. But in the mean time any ideas from anyone about this phenomenon?

Never heard of treatment of psychosis with ayahuasca or MAOI's.
Nevertheless, some types of depression or psychosis are very alike and realy more like something in between a severe depression and psychosis. In these borderline cases, where the diagnose realy depends as much on the preference of the psychiatrist for one diagnose or the other, as on the condition of the patient, i can imagine that sometimes treatments that are known to be effective for depressions can work out very well.

Yes thats what SWIM is wondering. Could it even just be the MAOI responsible and not the DMT? Once a week administration may help but this will require time to figure out. Either way SWIM thinks its fascinating such a positive result could come from this mixture of substances.