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...
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...
Skilled interpersonal support and safety monitoring can enhance the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds and reduce the potential for harm. In the anticipation of legalized psychedelic care, and the recognition of ongoing psychedelic use across a variety of contexts, numerous training programs have been established to educate psychedelic facilitators in supporting individuals who take...
Skilled interpersonal support and safety monitoring can enhance the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds and reduce the potential for harm. In the anticipation of legalized psychedelic care, and the recognition of ongoing psychedelic use across a variety of contexts, numerous training programs have been established to educate psychedelic facilitators in supporting individuals who take...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...