Psychedelics and Dying Care: A Historical Look at the Relationship between Psychedelics and Palliative Care.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 2019 DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2019.1581308 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Historical context of dying care |
| Topics | End-of-life distress |
| Keywords | Death and dying Medical humanities Palliative care Psychedelics Spirituality and healing |
| Citations | 16 |
| Key points | Argues that 1950s discussions about LSD for dying anxiety were marginalized by criminalization and that revisiting them may offer insights for contemporary psychedelic-palliative care debates. |
Abstract
This article examines the historical relationship between psychedelics and palliative care. Historians have contributed to a growing field of studies about how psychedelics have been used in the past, but much of that scholarship focused on interrogating questions of legitimacy or proving that psychedelics had therapeutic potential. Palliative care had not yet developed as medical sub-specialty, more often leaving dying care on the margins of modern, pharmaceutical-based treatments. As psychedelic researchers in the 1950s began exploring different applications for psychoactive substances such as LSD and mescaline, however, dying care came into clearer focus as a potential avenue for psychedelics. Before that application gained momentum in clinical or philosophical discussions, psychedelics were criminalized and some of those early discussions were lost. This article looks back at historical discussions about LSD's potential for easing the anxiety associated with dying, and considers how those early conversations might offer insights into today's more articulated discussions about psychedelics in palliative care.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on end-of-life distress, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palliative Nursing and Sacred Medicine: A Holistic Stance on Entheogens, Healing, and Spiritual Care. Patients with advanced serious illness | 2019 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psychedelics, spirituality, and existential distress in patients at the end of life. | 2025 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psychedelic Ethics in Palliative Care. | 2025 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Responding to existential distress at the end of life: Psychedelics and psychedelic experiences and/ as medicine | 2024 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Psychedelics in Palliative Care | 2025 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- The Past and Future of Psychedelic Science: An Introduction to This Issue Journal of Psychoactive Drugs March 15, 2019
- The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic-assisted Therapies for Symptom Control in Patients Diagnosed With Serious Illness: A Systematic Review Journal of Pain and Symptom Management February 11, 2022
- Mapping an Agenda for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Research in Patients with Serious Illness. Journal of Palliative Medicine April 13, 2021
- The ritual use of ayahuasca during treatment of severe physical illnesses: a qualitative study Journal of Psychoactive Drugs December 7, 2020
- Emerging Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies: Implications for Nursing Practice Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Nursing February 19, 2020
and 7 more in the library
Cites 6
- Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance Psychopharmacology July 7, 2006
- Psilocybin induces schizophrenia-like psychosis in humans via a serotonin-2 agonist action Neuroreport December 1, 1998
- Psychedelic medicine: a re-emerging therapeutic paradigm Canadian Medical Association Journal September 8, 2015
- How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence Anesthesia & Analgesia February 17, 2021
- Repression of death consciousness and the psychedelic trip. Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics 2012
and 1 more in the library