Answer: No, a Kambo cleanse does not treat depression and can actually be potentially deadly.
A Kambo cleanse is a recent "health" fad. Its origin can be traced back to some indigenous peoples of the Amazon, such as the Noke Kuin and the Matses.
According to folk medicine, the Kambo cleanse is performed to allow the patient to expel bad spirits, which helps improve fertility and strengthens a person physically. In the traditional Kambo treatment, the practitioner will inflict small burns onto the skin of the participant, commonly on the shoulders and arms. The practitioner will collect a species of nocturnal frog called the Amazonian Giant Maki Frog (phyllomedusa bicolor) and harvest the compounds from the skin of the frogs before returning the animal to the wild. The secretion, called Kambo, is then placed directly onto the burns, which allow the kambo toxin to go straight into the bloodstream.
However, Kambo cleanses have been adopted by Western pseudoscientific communities, despite the criticisms of many leaders of the indigenous peoples. Since the Kambo ritual is unregulated, and it is very difficult to accurately measure the amount of toxin administered, making overdose a possibility.
There are potentially serious side effects to exposure to the Kambo toxin. Dizziness, facial swelling, and abdominal cramping are some of the less severe side effects. At higher doses, Kambo can cause more severe side effects such as severe tachycardia (high heart rate), vomiting (and subsequent dehydration), seizures, and possibly death.
Chemically, at least 16 compounds have been identified in the secretion of Phyllomedusa bicolor, including:
Phylloseptins, peptides that are antibacterial and antiprotozoan
Phylloseptins: A novel class of anti-bacterial and anti-protozoan peptides from the Phyllomedusa genus.
Dermorphin, an opioid peptide with mu receptor activity that has analgesic effect Rediscovery of old drugs: The forgotten case of dermorphin for postoperative pain and palliation.
Sauvagine, which may be responsible for the muscle contraction seen after exposure to the toxin.
Most significantly, there have been no peer reviewed studies that demonstrate that Kambo treatment has any effect significant on depression. Most likely, the placebo effect may be at play in observations that Kambo helps depression. One of the major challenges is that an active placebo treatment, such as an intravenous infusion of saline, is significantly more effective at treating depression than no treatment.