medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
July 14, 2026
Ali J Zarrabi, Tanja Mletzko, George H. Grant et al.
Demoralization, a syndrome of helplessness, hopelessness, and loss of meaning and chronic pain are common sources of distress in early palliative care. Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) is an emerging intervention with preliminary data suggesting improvements in pain and demoralization. To date, PAT has not been studied among people living with both demoralization and chronic pain nor has it...
Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.)
June 1, 2026
Roman Palitsky, Laura E Captari, Jessica L Maples-Keller et al.
3 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapies (PAT) can provoke personally meaningful spiritual or existential experiences in patients; these experiences have been associated with improved outcomes across several treatment targets and populations. The need for spiritual and religious competence, though present across the spectrum of psychotherapeutic practice, is especially strong in psychedelic-assisted...
Psychedelics
April 29, 2025
Ishan Pasricha, Caroline Peacock, Roman Palitsky et al.
3 citations
Spiritual health practitioners (SHPs), also known as healthcare chaplains, are increasingly involved in facilitating psychedelic-assisted therapies in clinical trials and community settings. Although the motivations of therapeutic practitioners are known to impact clinical decision-making and treatment outcomes, little research has investigated what drives SHPs to pursue this work. This...
Psychotherapy
January 13, 2025
Roman Palitsky, Jessica L Maples-Keller, Caroline Peacock et al.
13 citations
Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) is an experimental treatment with transformative promise. Developing standards for PAT psychotherapy protocols is a priority, but psychotherapeutic protocol components of PAT have been subjected to little rigorous research. This study was designed to assess protocol components in a trial of PAT. The Enhanced Critical Incident Technique (E-CIT) was used to...
Am J Bioeth
January 13, 2025
Keenan Davis, Roman Palitsky, Boadie W Dunlop et al.
3 citations
In their article “Psychedelic Medicine Exceptionalism,” Cohen and Marks (2025) aim to chart a middle course between two extreme positions—the Scylla and Charybdis of psychedelic “exceptionalism” an...
Psychedelics.
December 17, 2024
Zachary Bosshardt, Jessica L Maples-Keller, Deanna M Kaplan et al.
Social attitudes, policy, and perceptions of psychedelics are currently undergoing considerable change. Growing public salience of psychedelics has been accompanied by the emergence of conferences focused on psychedelic education and dialogue. Attendees at such events compose an important group of stakeholders in psychedelic science and practice; their views of psychedelics can be valuable for...
International review of psychiatry (Abingdon, England)
December 1, 2024
Roman Palitsky, Nicholas K. Canby, Nicholas T. van Dam et al.
6 citations
Psychedelics have shown early evidence for a range of benefits and low harm profiles in extant research. However, adverse effects (AEs) research in psychedelics has been limited, leading to underspecified AE profiles, inconsistent measurement, and potential undercounting of AEs. The development of safe, effective psychedelic therapies and treatments for AEs when they occur requires a thorough...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
July 31, 2024
Roman Palitsky, Deanna M Kaplan, John Perna et al.
32 citations
Objective: Despite considerable research examining the efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies (PATs) for treating psychiatric disorders, assessment of adverse events (AEs) in PAT research has lagged. Current AE reporting standards in PAT trials are poorly calibrated to features of PAT that distinguish it from other treatments, leaving many potential AEs unassessed. Methods: A...
PLoS One
January 2, 2024
Caroline Peacock, Erin Brauer, Ali John Zarrabi et al.
27 citations
Background Psychedelic-assisted therapies hold early promise for treating multiple psychiatric conditions. However, absent standards for the care, teams providing psychedelic-assisted therapy pose a major roadblock to safe administration. Psychedelics often produce spiritually and existentially meaningful experiences, and spiritual health practitioners have been involved in administering...
JAMA Psychiatry
July 1, 2023
Roman Palitsky, Deanna M Kaplan, Caroline Peacock et al.
86 citations
Mounting evidence supports the role of spiritual, existential, religious, and theological components in mediating psychedelic-assisted therapy, yet integration of these elements into the clinical setting is lagging. Although psychedelic-assisted therapy commonly produces spiritually, existentially, religiously, or theologically relevant experiences for patients, these have not been...
Frontiers in Psychology
2022
Jennifer S Mascaro, Marianne P Florian, Marcia J Ash et al.
Over the last decade, numerous interventions and techniques that aim to engender, strengthen, and expand compassion have been created, proliferating an evidence base for the benefits of compassion meditation training. However, to date, little research has been conducted to examine individual variation in the learning, beliefs, practices, and subjective experiences of compassion meditation. This...
Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy
2021
Marcia J Ash, Elizabeth Reisinger Walker, Ralph J DiClemente et al.
This study examines the effectiveness of incorporating compassion meditation training into a clinical pastoral education (CPE) curriculum to enhance compassion satisfaction and reduce burnout among hospital chaplain residents. Specifically, a longitudinal, quasi-experimental design was used to examine the impact of Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), a group-delivered compassion...