General Hospital Psychiatry
July 1, 2003
195 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are reported by 10% of patients who survive cardiac arrest, compared with 1% of other cardiac patients. Those who report NDEs tend to be younger, more likely to have lost consciousness, more likely to report prior paranormal experiences, and show greater approach-oriented death acceptance. However, NDEs are not associated with objective proximity to death, degree of cardiac dysfunction, or coronary prognosis. The findings suggest NDEs are not simply a function of how close a patient is to dying.
General Hospital Psychiatry
September 11, 2021
76 citations
Using a meditation app for eight weeks led to greater improvements in depression and anxiety among 239 adults with insomnia symptoms compared to a control group. The mental health benefits were driven by reductions in both physical and mental arousal before sleep, which fully accounted for the effect on depression and partially for the effect on anxiety. Fatigue and daytime sleepiness did not explain the changes. A meditation app may improve depression and anxiety in adults with sleep disturbance by lowering pre-sleep arousal.
General Hospital Psychiatry
August 12, 2025
Margaret Ross, Ravi Iyer, M.l. Williams et al.
13 citations
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy appears safe and may provide lasting relief from depression and anxiety for people facing a life-threatening illness.
General Hospital Psychiatry
August 5, 2025
Jennie Hultgren, Matthias H Hafsteinsson, Joel Gruneau Brulin
13 citations
A review of studies on psychedelic-assisted therapy found no evidence that the number of therapy hours affects depression outcomes. The authors caution that this conclusion is tentative because the studies included small numbers of participants, varied widely in methods, and poorly documented the therapy provided. They call for future research to use more rigorous methods and standardized reporting to better understand the role of therapy.
General Hospital Psychiatry
December 9, 2025
Gerasimos Konstantinou, Joshua D. Rosenblat, Sarah Hales et al.
4 citations
Psilocybin-assisted therapy shows promise for treating late-life mental health conditions such as depression, loneliness, and existential distress, where conventional medications often have limited effectiveness and poor tolerability in older adults. The review describes neurobiological mechanisms including serotonergic modulation, enhanced neuroplasticity, and disruption of maladaptive default mode network activity. Clinical trials in general adult populations report sustained improvements in depressive symptoms, existential anxiety, and social connectedness following psilocybin administration. However, older adults are underrepresented in psychedelic research, creating gaps in knowledge about dosing, safety, and long-term outcomes. Age-specific protocols are needed to address pharmacokinetic complexities, cardiovascular risks, drug interactions, and ethical challenges around informed consent in cognitively impaired patients.
General Hospital Psychiatry
December 10, 2025
3 citations
Terminally ill people with extreme death anxiety can feel displaced from their own lives, afraid and alone in an all-encompassing present. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) can enable them to fully inhabit their life in a more abundant and joyful present, even in the face of death. The psilocybin component is necessary but not sufficient for this outcome. These findings expand the conceptualization of death anxiety and the personal transformation that constitutes successful PAP.
General Hospital Psychiatry
February 25, 2026
1 citation
Psychological stress worsens cancer outcomes by activating adrenergic signaling between nerves and tumors, a process called tumor-neuron crosstalk. Preclinical models show stress triggers sympathetic pathways that promote cancer progression and treatment resistance. Conventional antidepressants are often less effective for cancer patients, but psilocybin has achieved 60-80% long-term remission of cancer-related depression and anxiety in limited samples, while ketamine provides rapid but short-lived symptom control. These agents may normalize HPA axis function and upregulate neurotrophic factors, reducing sustained adrenergic tone and interrupting stress-driven tumor-neuron signaling. Integrating these drugs into oncology could improve survival, and hospital-based psychiatrists are positioned to lead interdisciplinary research with biomarker-rich trials.