Group psilocybin-assisted therapy may help older long-term AIDS survivor gay men accept death, dying, and impermanence, as well as their illness and complex emotions. This secondary qualitative analysis of interviews from six participants found three major themes: acceptance of death, acceptance of illness, and embracing complex emotions. The findings suggest that the therapy fosters death acceptance by helping participants accept their illness and engage with the full range of emotions that arise when facing mortality. Further studies are needed to validate these results, which highlight the importance of focusing on death acceptance in psychedelic research with seriously ill populations.
A scoping review of studies from 1990 to 2023 suggests that psychedelic-assisted therapy may lead to significant and lasting reductions in anxiety, depression, and existential distress among terminally ill patients. These improvements appear to be mediated by enhanced death acceptance. The therapy may also increase psychological flexibility and reduce demoralization, supporting better mental health outcomes. The review concludes that psychedelic-assisted therapy represents a promising approach to improving quality of life for terminally ill patients by fostering acceptance of their prognosis and mortality, but further research is needed to confirm these findings.