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Plain English Summary
When people nearly die and come back, a surprisingly large number of them report vivid near-death experiences -- around 20% of cardiac arrest survivors, and possibly over half of children who survive. These experiences often leave people profoundly changed: less afraid of death, more focused on meaning. But here's the twist -- about 14% of these experiences are actually distressing. This perspective piece from a Belgian neuroscience group argues that hospitals should stop treating NDEs as weird footnotes and start screening for them, much like they screen for delirium. They draw a fascinating parallel to psychedelic therapy, noting that the "set and setting" (your mindset and environment) may shape whether an NDE feels transcendent or terrifying. They even raise the provocative concern that sedation drugs might be suppressing beneficial NDE memories. The paper flags big blind spots too, particularly the near-total lack of research on children's and psychiatric patients' NDEs.
Actual Paper Abstract
Near-death experiences (NDEs), a syndrome of experiences with mystical-type content classically arising in the context of life-threatening situations, are under-researched in terms of their relevance for acute medical care. We here discuss several reasons to raise the importance of conducting more comprehensive NDE research in emergency and critical care contexts, including but not limited to near-death experiencers' awareness of surroundings and the need for patient support given NDEs' profound psychological impacts, and we suggest incorporating the identification of NDEs into management plans. Exploring NDE incidence and their subsequent impact in acute settings may unveil a pathway toward favorable outcomes within clinical practice.
Research Notes
Bridges NDE phenomenology research and clinical practice from the Coma Science Group at University of Liège. Notable for framing NDEs as clinically actionable events rather than mere curiosities, and for the psychedelic-NDE analogy that connects to the growing psychedelic therapy literature. A perspective piece without original data, but valuable for its clinical recommendations and identification of major research gaps (pediatric NDEs, psychiatric populations).
Perspective article arguing that near-death experiences warrant systematic identification and management in emergency and intensive care settings. Reviews NDE incidence data (approximately 20% of cardiac arrest survivors, 15% of ICU survivors, and possibly 58-64% of pediatric survivors) and discusses enduring psychological impacts including reduced death anxiety, increased meaning, and post-traumatic growth, while noting that at least 14% of NDEs are distressing. Proposes incorporating NDE screening via the NDE-C scale into clinical care plans, differentiating NDEs from delirium, and attending to set-and-setting factors that may modulate NDE valence. Draws parallels with psychedelic experiences and discusses pharmacological concerns around sedation suppressing potentially beneficial NDE recall.
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Related Papers
Cites
- Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands — van Lommel, Pim (2001)
- AWARE--AWAreness during REsuscitation--A prospective study — Parnia, Sam (2014)
- Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit — Greyson, Bruce (2003)
- Near-Death Experiences in Non-Life-Threatening Events and Coma of Different Etiologies — Charland-Verville, V (2014)
- Infrequent Near Death Experiences in Severe Brain Injury Survivors - A Quantitative and Qualitative Study — Hou, Yongmei (2013)
- The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity — Greyson, Bruce (1983)
- Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences — Cassol, Helena (2018)
- DMT Models the Near-Death Experience — Timmermann, Christopher (2018)
- Temporality of Features in Near-Death Experience Narratives — Martial, Charlotte (2017)
- Which Near-Death Experience Features Are Associated with Reduced Fear of Death? — Pehlivanova, Marieta (2022)
- Characteristics of Memories for Near-Death Experiences — Moore, L.E (2017)
Same Research Program
Also by these authors
More in Nde
Neuro-Functional Modeling of Near-Death Experiences in Contexts of Altered States of Consciousness
AWAreness during REsuscitation - II: A Multi-Center Study of Consciousness and Awareness in Cardiac Arrest
Advancing the Evidence for Survival of Consciousness
The Mystical Experience and Its Neural Correlates
The Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) scale: Development and psychometric validation
📋 Cite this paper
Michael, Pascal, Fritz, Pauline, Gosseries, Olivia, Rousseau, Anne-Françoise, Ancion, Aurore, Ghuysen, Alexandre, Martial, Charlotte (2025). The Central Clinical Relevance of Near-Death Experiences in Acute Care Contexts. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1544438
@article{martial_2025_nde_clinical_relevance,
title = {The Central Clinical Relevance of Near-Death Experiences in Acute Care Contexts},
author = {Michael, Pascal and Fritz, Pauline and Gosseries, Olivia and Rousseau, Anne-Françoise and Ancion, Aurore and Ghuysen, Alexandre and Martial, Charlotte},
year = {2025},
journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1544438},
}