ArticleJournal of palliative medicine2026
A Blueprint for Implementing Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Palliative Care: Design, Process, and Treatment Patterns of a Real-World Clinical Program.
Article in Journal of palliative medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPsychospiritual distress (PSD) causes profound suffering in people with serious illness, yet treatment options are few and evidence of their efficacy is modest. Although high-level evidence is limited, decades of preliminary research suggest that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP), including ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), may alleviate the anxiety, depression, and existential distress associated with PSD. However, clinical examples and published implementation frameworks for integrating these interventions into palliative care are scarce. To help bridge this gap, we describe the development and delivery of a palliative care-embedded KAP program at an academic medical center.
objectiveTo describe the design, implementation, and clinical experience of Pal-KAP, a safety-centered and equitably accessible KAP program embedded in outpatient palliative care.
methodsWe detail the program's origins, team composition and training, operational model, patient selection and consent process, session structure, safety protocols, and financial model. We summarize patient characteristics and treatment patterns and share illustrative clinical vignettes from the program's first 28 months.
resultsBetween May 2023 and September 2025, 59 patients were referred for Pal-KAP screening; 43 met the eligibility criteria, and 30 elected to participate. Patients (age 19-76, mean 53) completed a median of 1.5 medicine sessions (range 1-5). Most had cancer (80%) or neurological disease (13.3%). Ketamine dose averaged 0.93 mg/kg intramuscularly, with minor adverse effects (anxiety, headache, nausea, insomnia, dizziness) and no serious adverse events.
conclusionTo our knowledge, this is the largest published cohort of KAP in an academic palliative care context. Our Pal-KAP experience suggests that KAP can be delivered safely and ethically, providing a practical blueprint for programs exploring innovative ways to address PSD.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.