Participants’ Music Experiences Associated With Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy for Life-Threatening Illness: Interpretivist Research
Clare O’callaghan, Voula Kallianis, Margaret Ross
Journal of Music Therapy 2026 DOI: 10.1093/jmt/thag015 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial with open-label extension, qualitative analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 31 |
| Population | Participants with depression and anxiety associated with life-threatening illness |
| Interventions | Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy psilocybin |
| Duration | 11-session manualized PAP RCT with open-label extension; post-dose one and post-dose two interviews |
| Topics | Anxiety Psilocybin Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Thematic analysis Music therapy Grounded theory Qualitative research Randomized controlled trial Psychotherapist Emotional distress Clinical psychology Intervention counseling Qualitative analysis Qualitative property Interpretative phenomenological analysis Guided imagery |
| Key findings | Music during psilocybin ingestion can connect, interplay, and integrate with deep multisensorial, somatic, and mental realms, and participants felt more intensely connected to music in psilocybin compared to control sessions. |
Abstract
Limited evidence supports treatment for distress in life-threatening illness. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) may help. Despite music's presence in PAP, sparse accounts of music-related experiences exist. Such research is needed to optimize music's presence within PAP. This qualitative analysis aimed to understand participants' music-related accounts of their PAP experiences within a randomized controlled trial (RCT) for depression and anxiety associated with life-threatening illness, and participants' perceived mechanisms of change attributed to music during PAP. Participants undergoing an 11-session, manualized PAP RCT (with open-label extension) engaged in semi-structured interviews post-dose one (psilocybin or control ingestion) and post-dose two (psilocybin). Interviews examined participants' PAP experiences. A music therapist-led thematic analysis informed by grounded theory was conducted on music-related interview content. Thirty-one participants gave at least one post-dose interview. Four themes were generated: music during psilocybin ingestion can connect, interplay, and integrate with deep multisensorial, somatic, and mental realms; awareness of these far-reaching realms (one's essence) can be catalyzed by music and PAP; awareness of this essence can be revelatory, fragmenting, or both; and music can access PAP legacy sensations, spawning ongoing processing. Participants felt more intensely connected to music in psilocybin compared to control sessions. A data display illustrates participants' perceived mechanisms of change attributed to music during PAP preparation, dosing, and integration. Findings were compared with a psychiatrist-led phenomenologically framed analysis of the same data set. Both analyses extend conceptualizations about music in PAP and managing discordant inter-rating in qualitative research. Implications for music therapy and PAP, informed by the authors' collaboration, are considered.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on psilocybin and psychedelic-assisted therapy, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and persisting dose-related effects. Healthy adults, mostly hallucinogen-naïve | 2011 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 18 |
| Percentage of Heavy Drinking Days Following Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy vs Placebo in the Treatment of Adult Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder Adults aged 25–65 with DSM-IV alcohol dependence and at least 4 heavy drinking days in... | 2022 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 95 |
| Increased global integration in the brain after psilocybin therapy for depression. Patients with treatment-resistant depression and patients with major depressive disorder | 2022 | Open-label trial and double-blind phase II randomized controlled trial | |
| Single-dose psilocybin-assisted therapy in major depressive disorder: A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomised clinical trial. Adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder and no unstable somatic conditions | 2023 | Double-blind, randomised clinical trial | n = 52 |
| Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin Healthy participants | 2012 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 10 |