Psychedelic-assisted therapy for treating anxiety, depression, and existential distress in people with life-threatening diseases
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – September 11, 2024
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Psychedelic-assisted therapy offers hope for profound relief from severe anxiety, depression, and existential distress, including death anxiety, in those facing life-threatening illness. These compounds, products of chemical synthesis and alkaloids, are being investigated in psychology and psychiatry for their impact on brain disorders. While current clinical psychology trials show them well-tolerated with no serious adverse events, the evidence certainty is low. Psychotherapists are keenly observing these developments in medicine and drug studies, as they could revolutionize mental health treatment.
Abstract
Implications for practice Psychedelic-assisted therapy with classical psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD) may be effective for treating anxiety, depression, and possibly existential distress, in people facing a life-threatening disease. Psychedelic-assisted therapy seemed to be well tolerated, with no treatment-emergent serious adverse events reported in the studies included in this review. However, the certainty of evidence is low to very low, which means that we cannot be sure about these results, and they might be changed by future research. At the time of this review (2024), psychedelic drugs are illegal in many countries. Implications for research The risk of bias due to 'unblinding' (participants being aware of which intervention they are receiving) could be reduced by measuring expectation bias, checking blinding has been maintained before cross-over, and using active placebos. More studies with larger sample sizes are needed to reduce imprecision. As the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) currently classifies psychedelics as Schedule I substances (i.e. having no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse), research involving these drugs is restricted, but is steadily increasing.