Psilocybin, a tryptamine psychedelic found in certain mushrooms, shows promise for alleviating emotional and spiritual distress in palliative care patients. A review of recent research and field reports indicates that psilocybin has significant and sometimes sustained anxiolytic, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, and entheogenic effects with a favorable safety profile. However, the research has limitations, including selection bias toward healthy, white, financially privileged individuals and follow-up periods too short to assess long-term psychospiritual benefits and quality of life. Major legal, ethical, and financial barriers to access exist, likely worsened for geriatric and palliative care patients. More large-scale controlled trials are needed.
Over the past 30 years, integrative oncology has made valuable advances: intravenous high-dose ascorbate has clinical applications with certain chemotherapies; whole-body, extracorporeal, and locoregional hyperthermia are used for solid tumors including brain tumors; PDL-1 testing and immunotherapies show excellent outcomes in a subgroup of cancer patients; tumor DNA sequencing, including circulating tumor DNA, enables personalized precision treatments; better understanding of glucose metabolism has led to therapies like intermittent fasting and metformin; medical cannabis helps with chemotherapy side effects and shows anti-proliferative promise; psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology has expanded understanding of tumorigenesis and holistic immune regulation; psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is gaining traction for cancer-related existential distress; spiritual health is now measurable with an NIH-validated scale; and mind-body therapies effectively reduce cancer-related distress.
Ketamine assisted psychotherapy (KAP) may help treat postpartum mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) when introduced within the first two years after childbirth. Existing medications often fail to work quickly enough, are hard to access, or provide only short-term relief. This retrospective case series describes three individuals who received KAP as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. The report highlights how psychedelic insights gained during sessions may contribute to symptom improvement, suggesting KAP could offer a more effective and sustained therapeutic option for postpartum mental health.
In patients with problematic substance use, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) was associated with significant reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms, as measured by the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales. The average GAD-7 score decreased by 6.71 points, and the average PHQ-9 score decreased by 7.44 points. Improvements in psychosocial and spiritual well-being, measured by the NIH-HEALS scale, increased by an average of 5.13 points but were not statistically significant. Compared to the broader KAP patient population, those with problematic substance use showed significantly greater reductions in anxiety and depression. Undergoing one to six KAP sessions may be a useful therapy for reducing these symptoms in this population.