Exploring the Impact of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy on Moral Injury: A Scoping Review

Abstract

This scoping review addresses the need to comprehensively explore the potential opportunities for using psychedelics in clinical settings to facilitate recovery from moral injury. Moral injury, characterized by profound psychological distress resulting from morally challenging experiences, has garnered increased attention as a complex mental health concern. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in exploring alternative therapeutic approaches, with psychedelics emerging as a potential avenue for intervention. While the current body of literature highlights the positive effects of psychedelic-assisted therapy in addressing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it predominantly focuses on standard diagnostic criteria. Notably, there is a gap in the exploration of other crucial symptoms, including shame, guilt, self-blame, self-condemnation, grief and lack of self-compassion, which are characteristic of both moral injury and PTSD. Conducting this review is important due to the extremely limited existing literature on the interactions between moral injury and psychedelics. By systematically mapping the current landscape of research, identifying key themes, and evaluating the diversity of methodologies employed, this review seeks to elucidate the potential role of psychedelics in mitigating the impact of moral injury and promoting psychological healing.

Topics & conditions

Detected automatically by Psychedelic Commons from the title and abstract, not labels from the source. They may be incomplete.

Keywords