This qualitative study of how successful Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) transforms the way of life of terminally ill subjects provides new knowledge for researchers and clinicians contemplating its use. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) and interviews with subjects before and after PAP from a recent randomised control trial, we find that participants with extreme death anxiety have become displaced from their own life, afraid and alone in an all-encompassing present. PAP can enable them to fully inhabit their life in a more abundant and joyful present, even in the face of death. The psilocybin component is found to be necessary but not sufficient for this achieving this outcome. These novel findings expand our conceptualisation of death anxiety and of the personal transformation that constitutes successful PAP.

Clinical trial details

Australian New Zealand Clinician Trials Registry.

TrialReview.aspx?id=378101&isReview=true

registration: ACTRN12619001225101.