Get Healthy!

• Posted March 3, 2025

Death Risk Doubled For ER Patients On Psychedelics

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.

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 for hallucinogen use also had increased risks related to specific causes of death:

• 5.2 times increased risk for suicide

• 2.9 times increased risk for cancer

• 2.5 times increased risk for lung disease

• 2 times increased risk for overdose

These risks were higher than those of people who sought hospital care linked to alcohol consumption, but lower than people who needed care for opioid or stimulant use, researchers noted.

Psychedelics might increase a person’s risk of suicide if they’re used outside a clinical setting researchers said. 

People taking hallucinogens also might be liable to take other drugs, increasing their risk of overdose.

Further, people who needed hospital care for hallucinogen use were more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods, to have been homeless, to have chronic health problems, and to have been treated for a mental health or substance use disorder in the previous three years, researchers added.

“Despite the growing popularity of hallucinogen use, we know surprisingly little about potential adverse effects of hallucinogens, such as mortality risks,” lead researcher Dr. Daniel Myran, research chair in social accountability at the University of Ottawa, said in a news release.

“Contemporary clinical trials have not observed any short-term increase in risk of severe adverse events, including death, for trial participants,” Myran said. “However, these studies involve careful supervision and therapy for trial participants and exclude people at high risk of adverse outcomes.”

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on hallucinogens.

SOURCE: University of Ottawa, news release, March 3, 2025