A new study has found that psychedelics reduce depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening illnesses, which in turn lessens their fear of dying and death. The study, which involved researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine surveying 3,192 individuals, reported its findings in the “PLOS ONE” journal.
For their study, the researchers administered an online survey to these participants from December 2015 to April 2018. The researchers divided the study subjects into groups based on those who had had psychedelic experiences brought on by psychedelics and those who had undergone a nondrug-linked near-death experience.
The majority of the subjects had undergone psychedelic experiences brought on by DMT, ayahuasca, psilocybin and LSD, making up 307, 282, 766 and 904 in numbers, respectively. More than 80% of the subjects were White and from the United States, with researchers noting that there were more men in the psychedelic group as compared to the number of men in the nondrug group.
The researchers compared psychedelic experiences with near-death experiences that weren’t related to drugs. This led them to discover significant similarities in individuals’ attitudes toward death.
In their report, the researchers stated that roughly 90% of study subjects from both groups recorded a decrease in their fear of dying and/or death when they considered the changes in their views, after and before their experiences. Additionally, 75% and 85% of the subjects from the psychedelics group and the nondrug group respectively considered their experiences to be one of the top-five most spiritually significant and personally meaningful experiences in their lives.
Participants from both groups also reported that they noticed lasting positive changes in life purpose, meaning and general well-being after their experiences.
The study’s findings are consistent with findings from a separate clinical trial, which showed that psilocybin could help alleviate depression and anxiety among cancer patients. This study, which was also conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, involved 51 cancer patients who had presented with anxiety or depressive symptoms after receiving life-threatening diagnoses.
During the randomized, double-blind trial, each patient received a high dose of psilocybin, which was administered in combination with psychotherapy. The researchers observed a reduction in anxiety about death among the patients and increases in quality of life, optimism and life meaning. This is in addition to observing substantial increases in death acceptance.
In their report, the researchers highlighted the need for more studies into the subject designed to explore how psychedelics could be used clinically to alleviate suffering associated with the fear of death. And indeed many for-profit entities such as Delic Holdings Corp. (CSE: DELC) (OTCQB: DELCF) are undertaking various preclinical and clinical R&D programs aimed at commercializing different psychedelic compounds targeting a number of mental health conditions, including addiction and PTSD.
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