BMC medicine

Australian healthcare professionals’ views on using psilocybin to ease cancer-related existential distress

Updated

Abstract

Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) using psilocybin may offer clinical improvements in wellbeing for individuals experiencing existential distress related to cancer.

  • Existential distress is a common experience among people with cancer.
  • Current treatment options for this distress are limited.
  • There is emerging literature suggesting that PAT could improve wellbeing in this patient group.
  • In Australia, healthcare professionals have limited knowledge about PAT for addressing existential distress.
  • Healthcare professionals' attitudes and beliefs about PAT may impact its acceptance and delivery.

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Full Text

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Funding

Competing interests

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethics approval was obtained from the St Vincent Hospital Human Resource Ethics Committee (HREC) (2023/ETH00860), with site-specific approvals granted by Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. All participants provided consent. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: JS1 is an Executive Director of Neurala Biosciences and the connected not-for-profit Psyche Institute, which are both involved with psychedelics research and the development of these agents as registered medicines. He is employed and holds equity with Neurala Biosciences. He is also an advisory board representative for HedoniaUSA, which formulates and sells nutraceutical products. He also has received either presentation honoraria, travel support, clinical trial grants, book royalties, or independent consultancy payments from: Integria Healthcare & MediHerb, Pfizer, Scius Health, Key Pharmaceuticals, Taki Mai, Fiji Kava, Noetic Foundry, FIT-BioCeuticals, Blackmores, Soho-Flordis, Healthworld, HealthEd, HealthMasters, Kantar Consulting, Angelini Pharmaceuticals, Grunbiotics, Polistudium, Global Pharma Group, Australian Natural Therapeutics Group, Research Reviews, Elsevier, Chaminade University, International Society for Affective Disorders, Complementary Medicines Australia, SPRIM, Terry White Chemists, ANS, Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research, Sanofi-Aventis, Omega-3 Centre, the National Health and Medical Research Council, CR Roper Fellowship, Medical Research Futures Fund, CSIRO Australia, Launch Victoria, Genesis Fund, Tin Alley Ventures. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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