Cancer at the dinner table: experiences of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of cancer-related distress
Interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with 13 adults given a single supervised dose of psilocybin identified ten themes indicating that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy produced profound shifts—reconciliation with death, acknowledgement of cancer’s place in life, emotional uncoupling from cancer, spiritual meaning‑making, and a renewed presence and confidence facing recurrence. These psychological mechanisms likely underlie reported reductions in cancer-related anxiety and improvements in quality of life.
Authors
- Gabrielle Agin-Liebes
- Stephen Ross
- James Guss
Published
Abstract
Recent randomized controlled trials of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for patients with cancer suggest that this treatment results in large-magnitude reductions in anxiety and depression as well as improvements in attitudes toward disease progression and death, quality of life, and spirituality. To better understand these findings, we sought to identify psychological mechanisms of action using qualitative methods to study patient experiences in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 adult participants with clinically elevated anxiety associated with a cancer diagnosis who received a single dose of psilocybin under close clinical supervision. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, which resulted in 10 themes, focused specifically on cancer, death and dying, and healing narratives. Participants spoke to the anxiety and trauma related to cancer, and perceived lack of available emotional support. Participants described the immersive and distressing effects of the psilocybin session, which led to reconciliations with death, an acknowledgment of cancer’s place in life, and emotional uncoupling from cancer. Participants made spiritual or religious interpretations of their experience, and the psilocybin therapy helped facilitate a felt reconnection to life, a reclaiming of presence, and greater confidence in the face of cancer recurrence. Implications for theory and clinical treatment are discussed.
Research Summary of 'Cancer at the dinner table: experiences of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of cancer-related distress'
Introduction
Swift and colleagues situate the study against prior randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials showing that a single therapeutically supported dose of psilocybin produced large reductions in anxiety and depression and increases in meaning, peace, and spirituality among people with cancer. Earlier quantitative work also links psilocybin experiences to enduring changes in personality and spirituality in healthy volunteers, and two RCTs in oncology populations suggested that psilocybin-occasioned mystical experience partially mediated clinical benefit. Despite these findings, the authors note a gap in rigorous qualitative work exploring first‑person accounts of how psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy affects cancer-related psychological and existential distress. This article therefore set out to use qualitative methods to characterise patients' subjective experiences of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy specifically as they relate to cancer and death, and to identify psychological mechanisms that may help explain the clinical benefits observed in prior trials. The study draws on semistructured interviews with a subsample of participants who had completed a Phase II RCT of psilocybin for cancer-related distress, aiming to complement earlier quantitative results with rich narrative data about meaning, emotion, and behavioural change.
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Study Details
- Study Typeindividual
- Journal
- Compound
- Topics
- Authors
- APA Citation
Swift, T. C., Belser, A. B., Agin-Liebes, G., Devenot, N., Terrana, S., Friedman, H. L., Guss, J., Bossis, A. P., & Ross, S. (2017). Cancer at the dinner table: experiences of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of cancer-related distress. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 57(5), 488-519. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167817715966
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