The "near-death experience" during comas: psychotraumatic suffering or the taming of reality?
Y Auxéméry
Medical Hypotheses September 1, 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2013.05.021 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Key findings | Near-death experiences are not traumatic and can eliminate fear of death, leading to patient-centered care and consideration of comatose patients as subjects. |
Abstract
An near death experience (NDE) is the experience of an atypical state of consciousness that is induced by the neuropsychological consequences of a passage near death. Far from being a psychologically traumatic event, these experiences never cause flashbacks and can even eliminate the fear of death. Listening to patients who have shared their near death sensations has encouraged the reevaluation of the medical standards associated with NDEs. Over several decades, the patient has been positioned at the center of management decisions, with his or her will taken into account. Certain patients can be revived following neurological events, but their resuscitation is performed with the possibility of serious neurological sequelae, which might prevent a return to normal life. The patient may also remain unconscious, either transiently or in a more long term coma or persistent vegetative state. Nonetheless, several works have demonstrated the presence of neuronal activity, however little, in patients suffering from prolonged comas. The medical team then does not act as if the patient were not there but, on the contrary, considers the patient to be the subject, although unable to speak directly, to whom one speaks and of whom one speaks between caregivers.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on near-death experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distressing Near-Death Experiences | 1992 | Review | |
| Attitude Change Following Near-Death Experiences Individuals who have had near-death experiences | 1980 | Review | n = 21 |
| Near-death experiences. | 2004 | Review | |
| The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences | 2009 | Review | |
| Near-death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors | 2005 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- Epistemological implications of near-death experiences and other non-ordinary mental expressions: Moving beyond the concept of altered state of consciousness Medical Hypotheses April 11, 2015
- Near-Death Experiences: A Bibliometric and Systematic Review of Published Literature From 1977 to 2025. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying July 30, 2025
- Near Death Experiences: Falling Down a Very Deep Well OALib 2018
- Descriptive and cognitive-perceptual examination of near-death experiences in an Argentine sample: A comparative study Explore April 30, 2026
- Near-death experiences, posttraumatic growth, and life satisfaction among burn survivors Social Work in Health Care January 9, 2017
Cites 10
- Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands The Lancet December 1, 2001
- The Near-Death Experience Scale The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease June 1, 1983
- Features of "near-death experience" in relation to whether or not patients were near death The Lancet November 1, 1990
- Near-Death Experiences and the Temporal Lobe Psychological Science March 24, 2004
- Dissociation in people who have near-death experiences: out of their bodies or out of their minds? The Lancet February 1, 2000
and 5 more in the library