{"title":"A scoping review of the effects of serotonergic psychedelics on attitudes towards death.","authors":"Noah N T Barr, Kayla J Giese, Sam G Moreton","doi":"10.1007/s00213-025-06787-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Rationale: </strong>Emerging evidence suggests that psychedelic experiences have the potential to change attitudes towards death and reduce death anxiety. Improved attitudes towards death, specifically reduced death anxiety, are of psychological significance for clinical and non-clinical populations alike. Despite this emerging evidence, little is known about the phenomenology of this potential outcome.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To provide a systematic overview of studies reporting effects of psychedelics on attitudes towards death and death anxiety, thereby identifying any gaps in the current literature and informing suggestions for future research.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were systematically searched for empirical studies that measured attitudes towards death and death anxiety as an outcomes of classical psychedelic use. There were no limits on the date or design of the study.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The thirty-one studies included in the review all reported changes in attitudes towards death and/or changes in death anxiety. Despite finding evidence for psychedelics improving death anxiety, we found significant gaps in the existing research relating to the role of set and setting, potential differences across substances, the underlying psychological mechanisms involved, the potential for worsening of death anxiety, and the role of expectancy and placebo effects.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There is largely consistent evidence that psychedelics can often change attitudes towards death and reduce death anxiety. However, less is known about the reliability and strength of these effects, the conditions under which they are likely to emerge and aspects of the experience that best predict them.</p>","PeriodicalId":20783,"journal":{"name":"Psychopharmacology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychopharmacology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-025-06787-x","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Rationale: Emerging evidence suggests that psychedelic experiences have the potential to change attitudes towards death and reduce death anxiety. Improved attitudes towards death, specifically reduced death anxiety, are of psychological significance for clinical and non-clinical populations alike. Despite this emerging evidence, little is known about the phenomenology of this potential outcome.
Objectives: To provide a systematic overview of studies reporting effects of psychedelics on attitudes towards death and death anxiety, thereby identifying any gaps in the current literature and informing suggestions for future research.
Methods: MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were systematically searched for empirical studies that measured attitudes towards death and death anxiety as an outcomes of classical psychedelic use. There were no limits on the date or design of the study.
Results: The thirty-one studies included in the review all reported changes in attitudes towards death and/or changes in death anxiety. Despite finding evidence for psychedelics improving death anxiety, we found significant gaps in the existing research relating to the role of set and setting, potential differences across substances, the underlying psychological mechanisms involved, the potential for worsening of death anxiety, and the role of expectancy and placebo effects.
Conclusions: There is largely consistent evidence that psychedelics can often change attitudes towards death and reduce death anxiety. However, less is known about the reliability and strength of these effects, the conditions under which they are likely to emerge and aspects of the experience that best predict them.
理由：越来越多的证据表明，迷幻体验有可能改变对死亡的态度，减少对死亡的焦虑。改善对死亡的态度，特别是减少对死亡的焦虑，对临床和非临床人群都具有重要的心理意义。尽管有这些新出现的证据，但对这种潜在结果的现象学知之甚少。目的：对报告致幻剂对死亡态度和死亡焦虑影响的研究进行系统概述，从而确定当前文献中的任何空白，并为未来的研究提供建议。方法：系统地检索MEDLINE， Scopus， PsycINFO和Web of Science，以测量对死亡的态度和死亡焦虑作为经典迷幻药使用的结果的实证研究。研究的日期和设计都没有限制。结果：纳入本综述的31项研究均报告了对死亡态度的改变和/或死亡焦虑的改变。尽管我们发现了迷幻药改善死亡焦虑的证据，但我们发现现有研究中存在重大空白，涉及场景和环境的作用、不同物质之间的潜在差异、所涉及的潜在心理机制、死亡焦虑恶化的可能性，以及预期和安慰剂效应的作用。结论：有大量一致的证据表明，致幻剂通常可以改变对死亡的态度，减少死亡焦虑。然而，对于这些影响的可靠性和强度，它们可能出现的条件以及最能预测它们的经验方面，人们知之甚少。
期刊介绍：
Official Journal of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (EBPS)
Psychopharmacology is an international journal that covers the broad topic of elucidating mechanisms by which drugs affect behavior. The scope of the journal encompasses the following fields:
Human Psychopharmacology: Experimental
This section includes manuscripts describing the effects of drugs on mood, behavior, cognition and physiology in humans. The journal encourages submissions that involve brain imaging, genetics, neuroendocrinology, and developmental topics. Usually manuscripts in this section describe studies conducted under controlled conditions, but occasionally descriptive or observational studies are also considered.
Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Translational
This section comprises studies addressing the broad intersection of drugs and psychiatric illness. This includes not only clinical trials and studies of drug usage and metabolism, drug surveillance, and pharmacoepidemiology, but also work utilizing the entire range of clinically relevant methodologies, including neuroimaging, pharmacogenetics, cognitive science, biomarkers, and others. Work directed toward the translation of preclinical to clinical knowledge is especially encouraged. The key feature of submissions to this section is that they involve a focus on clinical aspects.
Preclinical psychopharmacology: Behavioral and Neural
This section considers reports on the effects of compounds with defined chemical structures on any aspect of behavior, in particular when correlated with neurochemical effects, in species other than humans. Manuscripts containing neuroscientific techniques in combination with behavior are welcome. We encourage reports of studies that provide insight into the mechanisms of drug action, at the behavioral and molecular levels.
Preclinical Psychopharmacology: Translational
This section considers manuscripts that enhance the confidence in a central mechanism that could be of therapeutic value for psychiatric or neurological patients, using disease-relevant preclinical models and tests, or that report on preclinical manipulations and challenges that have the potential to be translated to the clinic. Studies aiming at the refinement of preclinical models based upon clinical findings (back-translation) will also be considered. The journal particularly encourages submissions that integrate measures of target tissue exposure, activity on the molecular target and/or modulation of the targeted biochemical pathways.
Preclinical Psychopharmacology: Molecular, Genetic and Epigenetic
This section focuses on the molecular and cellular actions of neuropharmacological agents / drugs, and the identification / validation of drug targets affecting the CNS in health and disease. We particularly encourage studies that provide insight into the mechanisms of drug action at the molecular level. Manuscripts containing evidence for genetic or epigenetic effects on neurochemistry or behavior are welcome.
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