Medicina (Ribeirão Preto)December 31, 2025Juliano Teixeira Moraes, Michele Mileib de Vasconcelos, Tauãna Terra Cordeiro de Oliveira et al.
Introduction: Mindfulness-based interventions have significant contributions to individuals affected by illness or facing challenging situations such as caring for a loved one with a life-threatening illness. Objective: To identify and synthesize scientific evidence on the contributions of mindfulness-based practices in improving the quality of life of caregivers and family members of people...
Patients with life-limiting illnesses often experience profound emotional and spiritual challenges that conventional palliative care treatments may not fully alleviate. Psychedelics, with their potential to facilitate deep psychological insight, offer a promising approach to enhancing end-of-life care. Despite growing interest and emerging psychiatric applications, their use in palliative...
Palliative MedicineDecember 18, 2025Rita S. Matos, A. C. Silva, Licínio Rego et al.1 citation
Background: Palliative Care is concerned with relieving suffering and improving the quality of life of patients and their families. Currently, questions arise about how to provide patients with good end-of-life care. There has been increasing interest in the beneficial effects of using psilocybin-assisted therapy in patients with severe chronic illnesses near the end of their lives and who...
Background/Objectives: Patients in palliative care often experience multifaceted forms of suffering that extend beyond physical symptoms, including existential distress, loss of meaning, and emotional pain. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) has emerged as a promising intervention for alleviating such complex forms of suffering, yet models specifically tailored to palliative populations...
Background: Evidence is growing that psychedelic substances have positive effects in the setting of Palliative Care (PC), focusing on special needs in this patient population. After a scoping review of the literature, no published expert recommendations guiding best practice for psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) towards the end of life were identified. Objective: To draw conclusions from...
Background/Objectives: Given the limitations of traditional approaches to treating existential distress in seriously ill patients, psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has emerged as a promising treatment option. However, weighing up the potential risks and benefits of this approach can be challenging for both healthcare professionals and patients. Decision aids can play a key role in supporting...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) has shown promising results in alleviating psychological and existential suffering among individuals with serious illnesses. In parallel, nursing offers a robust theoretical framework to guide therapeutic communication in this context. This article explores the application of Peplau's Theory of Interpersonal Relations (PTIR) as a foundation for holistic...
This literature review looks at how psilocybin, the active compound in "magic mushrooms," can help people deal with death anxiety; the deep fear of dying or losing control that shows up in lots of mental health struggles. While traditional treatments like SSRIs and talk therapy work for some people, they don't always get to the root of the problem. Psilocybin works differently. It changes brain...
Although mindfulness is widely acknowledged to foster resilience, limited research has examined how palliative care providers sustain this practice and how it shapes their resilience. This study explores how providers with sustained mindfulness practice, understand, and embody the cultivation of resilience across personal and professional domains. Fifteen palliative care providers (three...
Although long known for their psychoactive effects, psychedelic drugs have only recently been investigated for medicinal use. Psilocybin has attracted the greatest interest with studies suggesting that it may be a useful agent in psychiatry and in palliative care. Clinical trials that included psilocybin were searched in PubMed, Embase, and ClinicalTrials.gov, demonstrating that adult...
Psilocybin, a psychedelic compound in certain mushrooms, has been used for centuries in spiritual ceremonies and neuropsychiatric therapy.Despite its stigmatization as a Schedule I substance in 1970, research into psilocybin has resurged since the early 2000s, particularly in psychiatry and palliative care.This review examines psilocybins potential to improve the quality of life in palliative...
Abstract This is the first book to explore the use of psychedelic medicines in palliative care and addiction medicine. Bringing together a diverse team of palliative physicians, therapists, researchers, spiritual guides, and entrepreneurs, the book explores the history, cultural significance, science, and legal status of eight major psychedelic medications. Each medication holds fascinating...
Introduction: Palliative care professionals experience high levels stress and burnout. Meditation improves stress and well-being, with group interventions more promising than individual-level efforts. This study assessed participation, satisfaction, helpfulness, and integration of a five-minute group meditation during weekly educational rounds. Methods: Seventy clinicians were invited to...
Psychological and existential distress is prevalent among patients with life-threatening cancer, significantly impacting their quality of life. Psilocybin-assisted therapy has shown promise in alleviating these symptoms. This systematic review aims to synthesize the evidence on the efficacy and safety of psilocybin in reducing cancer-related distress. We searched MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, Cochrane...
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy represents a promising addition to palliative care interventions, potentially improving quality of life by addressing existential distress. Despite its safety and effectiveness, this therapy remains limited in Canada, underscoring the need for improved access to ease suffering from life-threatening illnesses. However, important questions remain regarding how to...
Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has gained recognition as an innovative intervention in hospice and palliative care, demonstrating potential in mitigating the psychological, spiritual, and existential distress experienced by patients with serious illnesses. This article explores the role of PAT within these care settings, emphasizing its influence on various dimensions of human suffering, as...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) involves supported experiences with psychedelic medicines in carefully curated environments. Early evidence suggests possible utility of PAT for addressing psychosocial-spiritual-existential concerns, yet gaps remain in understanding findings related to PAT's role in palliative care. This rapid review aims to synthesize current literature on applications of...
This article discusses the neologism ‘palliadelic’ to designate the use of psychedelics in palliative care (PC) settings. Combining the concepts of ‘palliative’ and ‘psychedelic’, the term aims to describe interventions that use psychedelic substances to alleviate the psychological, spiritual, and existential suffering of patients with serious or incurable illnesses, or at the end of life....
Psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials conducted over the past decade have prompted increased interest in the use of psychedelics to treat nonphysical suffering, which can include significant spiritual and existential distress at the end of life. The authors explore the role of psychedelics in helping to address patients' spiritual and existential suffering from a medical, ethical, and...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) involves supported experiences with psychedelic medicines in carefully curated environments. Early evidence suggests possible utility of PAT for addressing psychosocial-spiritual-existential concerns, yet gaps remain in understanding findings related to PAT's role in palliative care. This rapid review aims to synthesize current literature on applications of...