People who receive emergency treatment in the hospital were more likely to die by suicide, cancer, lung disease and overdose compared to the general public, researchers found. Photo by Mert Coşkun/ Pexels People who land in the ER after using hallucinogens are more than twice as likely to die in a handful of years, a new study says.
Psychedelics users treated at a hospital are 2.6 times more likely than average folks to die from any cause within five years, researchers reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal .
They specifically were more likely to die by suicide, cancer, lung disease and overdose compared to the general public, researchers found.
"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," senior researcher Dr. Marco Solmi , an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, said in a news release. Related
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The use of hallucinogens like ketamine , psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca and ecstasy has rapidly increased since the mid-2010s, driven by clinical trials supporting their potential use in treating mental health and substance use disorders, researchers said in background notes.
The percentage of U.S. residents reporting that they used hallucinogens more than doubled from nearly 4% in 2016 to almost 9% in 2021, researchers said.However, there isn’t much data on whether these drugs could increase a person’s risk of death when they’re used outside carefully controlled settings, researchers said.For the new study, researchers analyzed records on ER visits or hospitalizations among more than 11.4 million people 15 and older living in Ontario, Canada, from 2006 to 2022.Overall, researchers found a 2.6-fold increased risk of early death among people who required treatment after using a hallucinogen.The risk was even higher — 3.2-fold — after researchers excluded people who had mental health or substance use disorders, results show.People who required care […]
Death risk doubles for emergency room patients on psychedelics, study says
