Psychedelics are a type of hallucinogenic drug that produce out-of-the-ordinary experiences of consciousness.
Psychedelics could scale back the worry of dying and demise, corresponding to emotions reported by people who’ve had near-death experiences.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine in contrast psychedelic experiences with non-drug-related near-death experiences in a survey research of greater than 3,000 people and found putting parallels in individuals’s views about demise. Both units of survey respondents claimed to have much less worry of dying and demise on account of the expertise. Additionally, they reported that the encounter had a long-lasting optimistic impression by offering them with a way of goal, religious significance, and psychological perception.
The research was not too long ago printed within the journal PLOS ONE.
The findings are according to numerous earlier medical research which have proven lasting enhancements in nervousness and despair amongst most cancers sufferers with a life-threatening prognosis produced by a single dose of psychedelic psilocybin. The authors of this research carried out the biggest of those trials (Griffiths et al., 2016) at Johns Hopkins Medicine. That research, a randomized trial involving 51 most cancers sufferers with clinically vital nervousness or depressive signs, confirmed that receiving supportive psychotherapy together with a managed, excessive dose of psilocybin considerably elevated scores of acceptance of demise and decreased nervousness about demise.
The researchers analyzed information from 3,192 people who responded to a web based survey between December 2015 and April 2018. Groups of contributors had been break up into teams: 933 individuals skilled non-drug-related near-death experiences, whereas the rest had psychedelic experiences triggered by lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) (904), psilocybin (766), ayahuasca (282), or N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) (307). The majority of participants (85%) were white and from the United States. The psychedelic group had a higher percentage of males (78% vs. 32%) and younger average age (32 vs. 55) at the time of the experience than the non-drug group.
Similarities between the groups include:
- About 90% of participants in both groups reported a decrease in fear of death when considering changes in their views from before to after the experience.
- Most participants in both groups (non-drug group, 85%; psychedelics group, 75%) rated the experience to be among the top five most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their life.
- Participants in both groups reported moderate to strong persisting positive changes in personal well-being and life purpose and meaning.
Differences between the groups include:
- The non-drug group was more likely to report that their life was in danger (47% versus the psychedelics group, 3%), being medically unconscious (36% versus the psychedelics group, 10%), or clinically dead (21% versus the psychedelics group, less than 1%).
- The non-drug group was more likely to report that their experience was very brief, lasting five minutes or less (40% versus the psychedelics group, 7%).
The researchers say that future studies are needed to better understand the potential clinical use of psychedelics in ameliorating suffering related to fear of death.
Reference: “Comparison of psychedelic and near-death or other non-ordinary experiences in changing attitudes about death and dying” by Mary M. Sweeney, Sandeep Nayak, Ethan S. Hurwitz, Lisa N. Mitchell, T. Cody Swift and Roland R. Griffiths, 24 August 2022, PLOS ONE.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271926
