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Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies
Background: Near death experiences (NDEs) are increasingly being reported as a clearly identifiable physiological and psychological reality of clinical significance. However, the definition and causes of the phenomenon as well as the identification of NDE experiencers is still a matter of debate. To...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034153/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24904345 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00203 |
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author | Charland-Verville, Vanessa Jourdan, Jean-Pierre Thonnard, Marie Ledoux, Didier Donneau, Anne-Francoise Quertemont, Etienne Laureys, Steven |
author_facet | Charland-Verville, Vanessa Jourdan, Jean-Pierre Thonnard, Marie Ledoux, Didier Donneau, Anne-Francoise Quertemont, Etienne Laureys, Steven |
author_sort | Charland-Verville, Vanessa |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Near death experiences (NDEs) are increasingly being reported as a clearly identifiable physiological and psychological reality of clinical significance. However, the definition and causes of the phenomenon as well as the identification of NDE experiencers is still a matter of debate. To date, the most widely used standardized tool to identify and characterize NDEs in research is the Greyson NDE scale. Using this scale, retrospective and prospective studies have been trying to estimate their incidence in various populations but few studies have attempted to associate the experiences' intensity and content to etiology. Methods: This retrospective investigation assessed the intensity and the most frequently recounted features of self-reported NDEs after a non-life-threatening event (i.e., “NDE-like” experience) or after a pathological coma (i.e., “real NDE”) and according to the etiology of the acute brain insult. We also compared our retrospectively acquired data in anoxic coma with historical data from the published literature on prospective post-anoxic studies using the Greyson NDE scale. Results: From our 190 reports who met the criteria for NDE (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score >7/32), intensity (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score) and content (i.e., Greyson NDE scale features) did not differ between “NDE-like” (n = 50) and “real NDE” (n = 140) groups, nor within the “real NDE” group depending on the cause of coma (anoxic/traumatic/other). The most frequently reported feature was peacefulness (89–93%). Only 2 patients (1%) recounted a negative experience. The overall NDE core features' frequencies were higher in our retrospective anoxic cohort when compared to historical published prospective data. Conclusions: It appears that “real NDEs” after coma of different etiologies are similar to “NDE-like” experiences occurring after non-life threatening events. Subjects reporting NDEs retrospectively tend to have experienced a different content compared to the prospective experiencers. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4034153 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-40341532014-06-05 Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies Charland-Verville, Vanessa Jourdan, Jean-Pierre Thonnard, Marie Ledoux, Didier Donneau, Anne-Francoise Quertemont, Etienne Laureys, Steven Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Background: Near death experiences (NDEs) are increasingly being reported as a clearly identifiable physiological and psychological reality of clinical significance. However, the definition and causes of the phenomenon as well as the identification of NDE experiencers is still a matter of debate. To date, the most widely used standardized tool to identify and characterize NDEs in research is the Greyson NDE scale. Using this scale, retrospective and prospective studies have been trying to estimate their incidence in various populations but few studies have attempted to associate the experiences' intensity and content to etiology. Methods: This retrospective investigation assessed the intensity and the most frequently recounted features of self-reported NDEs after a non-life-threatening event (i.e., “NDE-like” experience) or after a pathological coma (i.e., “real NDE”) and according to the etiology of the acute brain insult. We also compared our retrospectively acquired data in anoxic coma with historical data from the published literature on prospective post-anoxic studies using the Greyson NDE scale. Results: From our 190 reports who met the criteria for NDE (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score >7/32), intensity (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score) and content (i.e., Greyson NDE scale features) did not differ between “NDE-like” (n = 50) and “real NDE” (n = 140) groups, nor within the “real NDE” group depending on the cause of coma (anoxic/traumatic/other). The most frequently reported feature was peacefulness (89–93%). Only 2 patients (1%) recounted a negative experience. The overall NDE core features' frequencies were higher in our retrospective anoxic cohort when compared to historical published prospective data. Conclusions: It appears that “real NDEs” after coma of different etiologies are similar to “NDE-like” experiences occurring after non-life threatening events. Subjects reporting NDEs retrospectively tend to have experienced a different content compared to the prospective experiencers. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-05-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4034153/ /pubmed/24904345 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00203 Text en Copyright © 2014 Charland-Verville, Jourdan, Thonnard, Ledoux, Donneau, Quertemont and Laureys. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 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. |
spellingShingle | Neuroscience Charland-Verville, Vanessa Jourdan, Jean-Pierre Thonnard, Marie Ledoux, Didier Donneau, Anne-Francoise Quertemont, Etienne Laureys, Steven Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
title | Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
title_full | Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
title_fullStr | Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
title_full_unstemmed | Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
title_short | Near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
title_sort | near-death experiences in non-life-threatening events and coma of different etiologies |
topic | Neuroscience |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034153/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24904345 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00203 |
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