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Home/Research/Ayahuasca/Palliative & End-of-Life Distress

Ayahuasca for Palliative & End-of-Life Distress

10 papers and 0 clinical trials exploring ayahuasca as a treatment for palliative & end-of-life distress.

Compoundclassic psychedelic

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is a botanical decoction combining DMT with MAO-inhibiting harmala alkaloids, producing intense psychedelic effects lasting 3-6 hours. Clinical trials show rapid, large antidepressant effects from a single dose, with a favourable safety profile in controlled settings.

Full Ayahuasca profile
IndicationApproximately 40% of patients with terminal illnesses report significant distress at the end of life.

Palliative & End-of-Life Distress

Palliative and end-of-life distress represents a significant psychosocial challenge faced by patients with life-limiting illnesses, significantly impacting quality of life. Recent research suggests that psychedelic compounds, particularly psilocybin, may offer promising therapeutic benefits in alleviating existential distress and improving psychological well-being in these patients.

Full Palliative & End-of-Life Distress profile

Academic Research

10 papers
Open Accessindividual

Intact neurophysiological markers of death denial in long-term ayahuasca users

Using a no‑report MEG visual mismatch response paradigm, the study found that long‑term ayahuasca users report reduced fear of death and greater life satisfaction, but nonetheless retain intact neurophysiological markers of self‑specific death denial at automatic perceptual levels. The neural denial marker correlated with lower self‑reported death acceptance and reduced accessibility of death‑related thoughts, suggesting ayahuasca alters conceptual and affective engagement with death but not unconscious self‑specific denial.

Published
November 10, 2025
Journal
Psychopharmacology
Authors
Dor-Ziderman, Y., David, J., Berkovich-Ohana, A.
Paywallmeta

Quality of reporting on psychological interventions in psychedelic treatments: a systematic review

This systematic review (s=45) on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for mental disorders finds that psychological interventions are reported with low completeness and high heterogeneity. It also finds that MDMA studies are more homogeneous, with greater procedural detail.

Published
December 9, 2024
Journal
Lancet
Authors
Seybert, C., Schimmers, N., Silva, L., Breeksema, J. J., Veraart, J. K. E., Bessa, B. S., d'Orsi, D., Schoevers, R. A., Dinis-Oliveira, R. J.
Paywallmeta

Psychedelic therapy for depressive symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis (s=6) explored the therapeutic effects of psilocybin, LSD and ayahuasca on depressive symptoms in the clinical setting. When administered with psychological support, all psychedelics led to significant reductions in depressive symptoms at all measured timepoints (1-day, 1-week, 3-5 weeks, and 6-8 weeks). Some limitations include the small sample sizes used in most individual studies and the use of a cross-over design for long-term follow-up, which made it difficult to include those results in the meta-analysis.

Published
October 7, 2022
Journal
Journal of Affective Disorders
Authors
Kopra, E., Cleare, A. J., Rucker, J., Ko, K.
Open Accessindividual

Comparison of psychedelic and near-death or other non-ordinary experiences in changing attitudes about death and dying

In a large online survey of 3,192 people who had either psychedelic-occasioned or non-drug near-death/other non-ordinary experiences that changed their beliefs about death, both types produced comparable reductions in fear of death and high ratings of personal meaning and positive persisting effects, although psychedelic experiences elicited stronger mystical/near-death subjective features while non-drug events were more often rated the single most meaningful life event. Among psychedelics, ayahuasca and DMT tended to produce stronger and more positive enduring consequences than psilocybin and LSD; the authors suggest these characterisations support prospective psychedelic administration studies.

Published
August 24, 2022
Journal
PLOS ONE
Authors
Swee, M. B., Nayak, S., Hurwitz, E., Swift, T. C., Griffiths, R. R.
Open Accessmeta

Psychedelics, Mystical Experience, and Therapeutic Efficacy: A Systematic Review

This systematic review (s=12, 2022) finds a significant association between the mystical experience (MEQ) and psychedelic-assisted therapy (psilocybin, ketamine, ayahuasca) outcomes in ten of the 12 studies. Although promising, half of the studies were open-label and all with small sample sizes.

Published
July 12, 2022
Journal
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Authors
Knight, G., Rucker, J., Cleare, A. J., Ko, K.
Paywallmeta

Psychedelic medicalization, public discourse, and the morality of ego dissolution

This critical commentary (2021) examines a tendency of psychedelic research and popular media to frame subjective experiences, such as psychedelic ego dissolution, as a pharmacological outcome of using ayahuasca, rather than just one specific or desired outcome for certain societies, cultures, and individuals. This highlights the pitfalls of naturalizing socially constrained orientations towards psychedelics as amoral and objective criteria that conceptualize mental health as an individualized process.

Published
June 9, 2021
Journal
International Journal of Cultural Studies
Authors
Gearin, A. K., Devenot, N.

Clinical Trials

0 trials

No clinical trials have been tagged with both Ayahuasca and Palliative & End-of-Life Distress yet.

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