Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)
October 27, 2025
Alessandro Gonçalves Campolina, Marco Aurélio Tuena De Oliveira
1 citation
Patients in palliative care often suffer from existential distress, loss of meaning, and emotional pain beyond physical symptoms. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) has emerged as a promising intervention for this complex suffering, but models tailored to palliative populations are scarce. This narrative review synthesizes evidence on ketamine's neurobiological, psychological, and experiential effects relevant to end-of-life care and presents a novel, time-limited KAP model. The model includes preparatory and integrative psychotherapy, two ketamine dosing sessions (one low-dose and one moderate-dose), concurrent psychotherapy, goals of care discussion, and optional pharmacological optimization. It leverages ketamine's effects on self-processing networks to address both bodily and narrative dimensions of distress, offering a compassionate, pragmatic approach to enhancing meaning, emotional resolution, and quality of life at the end of life.
Preprints.org
August 29, 2025
Alessandro Gonçalves Campolina, Marco Aurélio Tuena de Oliveira
1 citation
preprint
A narrative review synthesizes evidence on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) for palliative care patients, who often suffer existential distress, loss of meaning, and emotional pain beyond physical symptoms. The authors present a novel, time-limited KAP model tailored to end-of-life settings, integrating neurobiological, psychological, and experiential effects. The model includes preparatory and integrative psychotherapy, two ketamine dosing sessions (one low-dose and one moderate-dose), concurrent psychotherapy, goals of care discussion, and optional pharmacological optimization. It leverages ketamine's effects on self-processing networks—the Salience Network (embodied self-awareness) and Default Mode Network (narrative self-construction)—to address bodily and narrative dimensions of distress. The approach emphasizes psychological safety, meaning-making, and patient-centered care to enhance quality of life at the end of life.
Healthcare (Basel)
June 2, 2026
Daniele Almeida Soares, Alessandro Gonçalves Campolina
Psychedelic-assisted therapies, including ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, show promise for reducing depression, anxiety, and existential distress in patients with life-limiting illness, primarily in early-phase oncology studies. A review of 22 studies found consistent improvements in quality of life and spiritual well-being, with generally favorable safety under controlled conditions. However, the evidence remains preliminary, drawn from small, methodologically diverse studies with limited blinding and highly selected populations. The incorporation of key therapeutic practices—such as preparation, integration, and clinician training—was uneven across the literature, revealing a gap between research evidence and emerging clinical recommendations.