Psilocybin and palliative end-of-life care

Excerpt

Cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide, and annual cancer cases are expected to increase from 14 million in 2012 to 22 million within the next two decades (Stewart and Wild, 2014). As depression and anxiety are prevalent among individuals diagnosed with cancer, the treatment of psychologi-cal distress in this population is a mental-health priority. Of course, depression and anxiety associated with the end of life are not limited to individuals diagnosed with cancer (Cochinov et al., 2016), and according to the prominent terror management theory, fear secondary to the awareness of the inevitability of death drives much of human behavior (Greenberg et al., 1997). Treatments for death distress may therefore be considered a universal need.