PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1544438
The central clinical relevance of near-death experiences in acute care contexts: Identification, prediction and management
Provisionally accepted
Pascal Michael1*
Pauline Fritz2
Olivia Gosseries2
Anne-Françoise Rousseau2
Aurore Ancion2
Alexandre Ghuysen2
Charlotte Martial2*- 1University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
- 2University of Liège, Liège, Liège, Belgium
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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 towards favorable outcomes within clinical practice.
Keywords: near-death experience, emergency, Intensive Care, Critical Illness, Memory
Received: 16 Dec 2024; Accepted: 10 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Michael, Fritz, Gosseries, Rousseau, Ancion, Ghuysen and Martial. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Pascal Michael, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Charlotte Martial, University of Liège, Liège, 4000, Liège, Belgium
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