Articles in the Czech journal Palliative Medicine

The current issue of the Czech journal Palliative Medicine (Vol 2 No 2, 2021) includes three articles on psychedelics: 1) The power of transcendental experience at the time of imminent death, 2) Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy - experimental strategy in the treatment of anxiety-depressive symptoms in the seriously ill, and 3) Report from the conference "Psychedelic Medicine in End-Of-Life Care". These texts can be found on pages 29-38.

In the first article, the author, MUDr. Martin Matějů, Ph.D. (Department of Oncology at the First Medical Faculty of Charles University Prague) offers an oncologist's view of the psychedelic renaissance and treatment of patients with life-threatening diseases. He provides an overview of the current possibilities of psychotherapeutic intervention and summarizes the pitfalls and potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP).

The authors of the second article are MUDr. Anna Bravermanová, MUDr. Filip Tylš, Ph.D., and prof. MUDr. Jiří Horáček, PhD. (National Institute of Mental Health). In their article, they first introduce the individual psychedelics and the PAP paradigm. Then they focus on a specific category of substances - classical psychedelics, describing their psychological and somatic effects, as well as their risks and the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms of their action. The article also provides an extensive overview of past and current studies on the efficacy and safety of psychedelics in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and existential distress in seriously ill and oncology patients.

The third text, a report from the conference on psychedelics in palliative care, was compiled by a coordinator of our working group, Mgr. Jan Soukup (Hospice of the Good Shepherd, Čerčany). The article outlines the topics of each contribution, focusing on an extensive lecture by the keynote speaker of this meeting, Ira Byock, and briefly discusses presentations by other speakers, such as Anthony Bossis, Julane Andries, Evan Sola, Brian Anderson, Philip Wolfson, Mellody Hayes, Andrew Penn and Joshua Biddle.

If the Palliative Medicine journal comes into your hands, we highly recommend reading it, and not just because of the articles on psychedelics in palliative care. The fact that this journal started to be published in the Czech Republic is an important step for the palliative scene and we are proud that its editor-in-chief, MUDr. MgA. Kateřina Rusinová, PhD., is our expert supervisor. Learn more at https://www.palmed.cz/.