There is much excitement surrounding recent research of promising, mechanistically novel psychotherapeutics - psychedelic, anesthetic, and dissociative agents - as they have demonstrated surprising efficacy in treating central nervous system (CNS) disorders, such as mood disorders and addiction. However, the mechanisms by which these drugs provide such profo...
Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety are major contributors to the overall global health burden. COVID-19 has further aggravated mental health disorders and also increased substance abuse due to lockdowns1. The Global Burden of Disease reported that the pandemic has led to a 27.6% increase in cases of major depressive disorder (MDD) and a 2...
AimsThis paper aims to investigate the advances in recent years in the recognition and therapy of treatment-resistant depression starting from the concepts of: depressive disorder, resistance and pseudoresistance to drug treatment in depression, and appropriate treatments of treatment-resistant depression.MethodsAn extensive research was carried out on scien...
Research on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances is expanding. A limitation within this field is the unpredictability of individual responses to psychedelics. Better understanding of factors predicting psychedelic experience is essential to clinical progress and wider harm reduction frameworks. Ketamine, MDMA, LSD and psilocybin were selected ...
The utility of classical drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders (e.g., antidepressants, anxiolytics) is often limited by issues of lack of efficacy, delayed onset of action or side effects. Psychoactive substances have a long history of being used as tools to alter consciousness and as a gateway to approach the unknown and the divinities. These substances...
Pharmacotherapy of depression is characterized by the delayed onset of action, chronic treatment requirements, and insufficient effectiveness. Ketamine, with its rapid action and long-lasting effects, represents a breakthrough in the modern pharmacotherapy of depression. The current review summarizes the latest findings on the mechanism of the antidepressant...
As psychedelic medicine is becoming mainstream, physicians need to know something about these medications, their indications, contraindications, and potential for research. This article is a brief overview of the subject with some ideas of how psychedelic medicines can impact the practice of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
Psychedelics have been already used by human societies for more than 3000 years, mostly in religious and healing context. The renewed interest in the potential application of psychedelic compounds as novel therapeutics has led to promising preliminary evidence of clinical benefit in some psychiatric disorders. Despite these promising results, the potential f...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a significant public health concern for which existing therapies are only marginally effective. Indisputably, the primary line of treatment for PTSD is psychotherapy, according to current treatment guidelines. However, PTSD continues to be a chronic condition even after psychotherapy, with high psychiatric and medical...
This publication discusses two compounds belonging to the psychoactive substances group which are studied in the context of depression treatment-psilocybin and esketamine. The former is a naturally occurring psychedelic. The latter was invented in the laboratory exactly 60 years ago. Although the substances were controversial in the past, recent studies indi...
AimsInformation on time trends in use of different plant-based hallucinogens is lacking. The current study used nationally representative U.S. data to assess overall and age-specific time trends in the prevalence of lifetime and 12-month use of plant-based hallucinogens and dissociative agents.MethodsParticipants were respondents aged ≥ 12 years (N = 1,006,0...
Introduction There is a growing and renewed interest in the use of hallucinogenic drugs in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, especially since the FDA approval of ketamine treatment for resistant depression. The response to hallucinogenic psychedelic substances (ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, ketamine) in the treatment of depression and addictions calls fo...
ObjectivesDifferent psychoactive substances are widely used in today's society. So far limited data are available on the use of psychedelics in the general population. The main aim of this study is to estimate the numbers of users of substances with psychedelic properties (classical psychedelics, cannabis, ecstasy, and ketamine) in the Czech Republic.Methods...
IntroductionMajor depressive disorder remains a prevalent world-wide health problem. Currently available antidepressant medications take weeks of dosing, do not produce antidepressant response in all patients, and have undesirable ancillary effects.Areas coveredThe present opinion piece focuses on the major inroads to the creation of new antidepressants. The...
Abstract Objective: Psychedelic-assisted therapies are emerging as safe and effective treatments for some psychological conditions including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders. As ketamine therapy is already available in general medicine and 3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin are in late-stage...
BackgroundEvidence points to an incongruence between international drug policy and expert opinion about safety, abuse potential, and therapeutic potential of specific drugs. However, no prior studies have directly explored psychiatrists' attitudes about the current drug schedule. Therefore, we examined whether American psychiatrists' perceptions of four psyc...
To understand how pharmacological interventions can exert their powerful effects on brain function, we need to understand how they engage the brain’s rich neurotransmitter landscape. Here, we bridge microscale molecular chemoarchitecture and pharmacologically-induced macroscale functional reorganisation, by relating the regional distribution of 19 neurotrans...
The mystical experience is a potential psychological mechanism to influence outcome in psychedelic therapy. It includes features such as oceanic boundlessness, ego dissolution, and universal interconnectedness, which have been closely linked to both symptom reduction and improved quality of life. In this review, 12 studies of psychedelic therapy utilizing ps...
Depression is common at the end of life, and there is longstanding concern that it may affect terminally ill patients' decisions to request physician-assisted death (PAD). However, it is difficult for clinicians to determine the role of depression in a patient's PAD request. A recent case series described rapid responses to intranasal ketamine in three patie...
Suicidal behaviour is a public health problem whose magnitude is both substantial and increasing. Since many individuals seek medical treatment following a suicide attempt, strategies aimed at reducing further attempts in this population are a valid and feasible secondary prevention approach. An evaluation of the available evidence suggests that existing tre...
