Dear Editor,
I read with great interest the recent article by Rousseau et al. [1] documenting the incidence of near-death experiences (NDEs) in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, and noting that NDEs, contrary to expectation, were not significantly associated with quality of life one year later, as measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs (WHOQOL-SRPB). As the authors noted, NDEs are typically reported as life-transforming, but may be associated with distressing emotions [2].
The authors acknowledged some limitations that may have influenced the finding of no effect of NDEs on quality of life, such as the limited number of patients who reported NDEs. However, prior research has documented a similar lack of effect on quality of life following NDEs, using different measures. Olson and Dulaney [3], in a comparably small sample of elderly patients, found no difference in quality of life as measured by the Life Satisfaction Index-A between those who did and did not report NDEs. Greyson [4], sampling 126 individuals with NDEs, found no difference in quality of life as measured by the Satisfaction With Life Scale compared with those who did not have NDEs and those who had not come close to death.
These similar findings using different measures of quality of life and different populations support the finding of Rousseau et al. that the reported positive personality transformations following NDEs do not lead to improved quality of life. It is plausible that adjustment problems following NDES are sufficient to offset positive changes in attitudes, beliefs, and personality in influencing quality of life [4]. It has also been suggested by the facilitator of an NDE support group that, whereas most people assess their quality of life in comparison with an idealized earthly life, people who report NDEs may compare their current quality of life with memories of their perceived experience in a transcendental realm, which may lead them to diminish their ratings of their current quality of life [5]. Whatever the explanation, the lack of influence of NDE on subsequent quality of life appears to be a robust finding and not an artifact of limited sample size.
Availability of data and materials
No previously unpublished data were discussed in this Correspondence.
Abbreviations
- NDE:
-
Near-death experience
- WHOQOL-SRPB:
-
World Health Organization Quality of Life-Spirituality, Religiousness and Personal Beliefs
References
Rousseau A-F, Dams L, Massart Q, Choquer L, Cassol H, Laureys S, Misset B, Dardenne N, Gosseries O, Martial C. Incidence of near-death experiences in patients surviving a prolonged critical illness and their long-term impact: a prospective observational study. Crit Care. 2023;27:76. 10.1186/s13054-023-04348-2https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-023-04348-2.
Cassol HV, Martial C, Annen J, Martens G, Charland-Verville V, Majerus S, et al. A systematic analysis if distressing near-death experience accounts. Memory. 2019;27(8):1122–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1626438.
Olson M, Dulaney P. Life satisfaction, life review, and near-death experiences in the elderly. J Holist Nurs. 1993;11:368–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/089801019301100406.
Greyson B. Near-death experiences and satisfaction with life. J Near Death Stud. 1994;13(2):103–8. https://doi.org/10.17514/JNDS-1994-13-2-p103-108.
Greyson B. NDEs and satisfaction with life. J Near Death Stud. 1996;14(3):218–9. https://doi.org/10.17514/JNDS-1996-14-3-p218-219.
Acknowledgements
Not applicable.
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
BG is solely responsible for conceptualizing and writing this Correspondence. The authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
This Correspondence does not involve any new research that would require participants or ethical approval.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The author declares that he has no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
About this article
Cite this article
Greyson, B. Near-death experience and quality of life: additional research. Crit Care 27, 185 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-023-04465-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-023-04465-y