Psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms may offer new ways to help people cope with life-threatening illness, according to an expert in psychological medicines.
A recent study involving 93 palliative care doctors across New Zealand and Australia found strong support for further research into the use of psychedelic medicines for patients receiving palliative care. The findings reflected cautious optimism among doctors, alongside an emphasis on the need for innovative, patient-centred approaches.
Research is already underway into the use of MDMA to treat people with terminal cancer. Auckland University associate professor David Menkes said early trial results were encouraging.
He said there were strong indications that MDMA could be highly beneficial for some individuals facing death from cancer, noting that anything that helps make their experience more manageable and tolerable is valuable.
The study also found that 75% of respondents disagreed with the idea that psychedelics are unsafe and should be prohibited for medical use, while 88% believed their clinical use in palliative care deserves further investigation.
Younger doctors were more likely than older respondents to think psychedelics could improve clinical outcomes.
Menkes said that, in the future, psychedelic-assisted treatment could offer an alternative for some people considering assisted dying.
“We think this may actually reduce the numbers of people who go ahead and have medically assisted dying, which for many people would be considered a good outcome,” he said.
“We have this law in New Zealand now that people can make that informed choice, right, at the end of life. But if they’re doing that because they just find their situation intolerable and they can be relieved of that burden in some other way, then it’s quite possible that they will elect to do that. And then have, perhaps, a few more months to share with family or to do what they need to feel ready to sign off.”
Menkes said progress in this field has been slowed by longstanding public perceptions shaped by the United States government-led “war on drugs.” He noted that while psychedelic research was active in the 1950s and 1960s, it largely stopped for 30 years and has only resumed in the past 10 to 20 years.
As a result, he said there is still much to learn about how these medicines should be used, who might benefit from them, and how their potential benefits compare to possible harms.