New Delhi, March 3 The use of hallucinogens, such as ketamine and psychedelics can raise the risk of death by 2.6-fold, according to a study on Monday.
Researchers from The Ottawa Hospital in Canada noted that the use of hallucinogens including psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and MDMA (ecstasy), has rapidly increased since the mid-2010s.
Increasing use may partially also reflect growing medical and societal interest in pairing psychedelics with psychotherapy for mental health and substance use disorders, said the team.
However, although psychedelic-assisted therapy trials have generally been safe, there is little data about whether hallucinogens might increase the risk of adverse events, such as thoughts of suicide and death, when used outside of carefully controlled clinical trial settings or in populations currently excluded from trials.
“Despite the growing popularity of hallucinogen use, we know surprisingly little about potential adverse effects of hallucinogens, such as mortality risks. Contemporary clinical trials have not observed any short-term increase in the risk of severe adverse events, including death, for trial participants. However, these studies involve careful supervision and therapy for trial participants and exclude people at high risk of adverse outcomes,” said Dr. Daniel Myran, a family physician and public health and preventive medicine physician-researcher at The Ottawa Hospital.
To better understand the link, the team looked at health care data on emergency department visits, hospitalisations, and outpatient physician visits for more than 11.4 million people in Ontario aged 15–105 years. Of the total group, 7,954 sought acute care for hallucinogen use.
The risk of death within 5 years for people who sought acute care for hallucinogen use was almost 10 times that of someone of the same age and sex in the general population, as per findings published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Individuals who received acute care for hallucinogen use also had more medical comorbidities. People needing acute care for hallucinogen use were more likely to live in low-income neighbourhoods, to have been homeless at the time of a previous acute care visit, to have chronic health conditions, and/or to have received care for a mental health problem or substance use disorder in the previous 3 years.
They were at higher risk of death than people who sought alcohol-related acute care, but at lower risk of death than people needing acute care for opioid or stimulant use.
“The findings highlight the need for ongoing investigation of and communication about both potential benefits and risks from hallucinogen use, particularly use outside clinical trial settings, given rapid increases in general population use,” said Dr. Marco Solmi, psychiatrist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor, University of Ottawa.
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