Maria Barbanoj
Clinical Pharmacologist and Psychopharmacology Researcher
Papers
Trials
Key Impact
Notable for pioneering human pharmacology and clinical studies of ayahuasca, bridging subjective, physiological and neuropsychological measures in both acute and long-term ritual users.
Background & Research
María José Barbanoj is a clinical pharmacologist and psychopharmacology researcher known for systematic human studies of ayahuasca and its effects on physiology, cognition and behaviour. Her work applies rigorous clinical pharmacology methods to characterise subjective and cardiovascular responses, monoamine metabolite excretion and pharmacokinetics of ayahuasca preparations, together with objective neurophysiological and sleep measures.
Barbanoj has contributed to multiple lines of investigation including acute human pharmacology, modulation of REM and slow-wave sleep after daytime administration, and sensorimotor gating as indexed by P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition. She has also led longitudinal and cross-sectional assessments of ritual ayahuasca users, examining addiction severity, personality, psychopathology, life attitudes and neuropsychological performance. Collectively, her studies have helped to contextualise the safety profile and neurobehavioural correlates of ayahuasca in both experimental and naturalistic settings.