Use of the Classic Hallucinogen Psilocybin for Treatment of Existential Distress Associated with Cancer
This book chapter (2013) looks at the state of the research on psychedelics about cancer. The latter often leads to anxiety and a search for meaning. The former can help with this challenging journey.
Authors
- Roland Griffiths
- Charles Grob
- Alison Bossis
Published
Abstract
This chapter reviews the potential of a treatment approach that uses psilocybin, a novel psychoactive drug, to ameliorate the psychospiritual distress and demoralization that often accompany a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. The focus of cutting-edge research beginning in the 1950s, the investigation of classic hallucinogens had a major impact on the evolving field of psychiatry, contributing to early discoveries of basic neurotransmitter systems and to significant developments in clinical psychopharmacology. While published reports of therapeutic breakthroughs with difficult-to-treat and refractory patient populations were initially met with mainstream professional enthusiasm, by the late 1960s and early 1970s the growing association of hallucinogens with widespread indiscriminate use led to the temporary abandonment of this promising psychiatric treatment model. After a hiatus lasting several decades, however, regulatory and scientific support has grown for the resumption of clinical research investigations exploring the safety and efficacy of a treatment model utilizing the classic hallucinogen, psilocybin, in a subject population that had previously demonstrated positive therapeutic response, patients with existential anxiety due to a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.
Research Summary of 'Use of the Classic Hallucinogen Psilocybin for Treatment of Existential Distress Associated with Cancer'
Introduction
This chapter situates psilocybin within the historical and contemporary context of psychiatric research and palliative care, focusing on its potential to reduce the existential distress and demoralization commonly experienced by patients with life‑threatening cancer. Earlier mid‑twentieth century research suggested therapeutic promise of classic hallucinogens for refractory psychiatric conditions and for anxiety associated with terminal illness, but studies were largely halted in the late 1960s and early 1970s amid social and political controversy. Renewed regulatory and scientific interest over recent decades has prompted modern investigations of psilocybin under controlled conditions. Grob and colleagues set out to review the pharmacology and phenomenology of psilocybin, to summarise historical clinical work with hallucinogens in cancer populations, and to describe contemporary clinical research programmes that explore whether psilocybin‑occasioned mystical or transcendent experiences can ameliorate spiritual, existential, and psychological suffering in patients facing terminal or life‑threatening cancer. The chapter emphasises both the unique character of the mystical‑experience model and the rationale for further, state‑of‑the‑art clinical studies in palliative and psycho‑oncology settings.
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Study Details
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- APA Citation
Grob, C. S., Bossis, A. P., & Griffiths, R. R. (2013). Use of the Classic Hallucinogen Psilocybin for Treatment of Existential Distress Associated with Cancer. Psychological Aspects of Cancer, 291-308. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4866-2_17
References (9)
Papers cited by this study that are also in Blossom
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Kaup, K. K., Vasser, M., Tulver, K. et al. · Frontiers in Psychiatry (2023)
Nielson, E. M. · Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2021)
Aday, J. S., Bloesch, E. K., Wood, J. R. et al. · Reviews In The Neuroscience (2021)
Aday, J. S., Mitzkovitz, C. M., Bloesch, E. K. et al. · Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (2020)
Reiche, S., Hermle, L., Gutwinski, S. et al. · Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry (2018)
Phelps, J. · Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2017)
Hartogsohn, I. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2016)
Carbonaro, T. M., Bradstreet, M. P., Barrett, F. S. et al. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2016)
Grob, C. S., Mithoefer, M. C., Brewerton, T. D. · Lancet Psychiatry (2016)
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Kometer, M., Pokorny, T., Seifritz, E. et al. · Psychopharmacology (2015)
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