Recent antidepressant drug development focuses on a next generation of drugs to rapidly relieve symptoms. Yet, how ketamine, the prototype rapid-acting antidepressant, maintains symptom relief days after drug elimination, and how repeated doses sustain longer-lasting therapeutic effects, remains unclear. Derived from elements of metaplasticity (synaptic prim...
BACKGROUND: Depression and burnout, which are common among healthcare workers, were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and psilocybin have been reported to reduce depressive symptoms, but the efficacy of the combination requires comparison to an active treatment control. We sought to evaluate the safety and prelim...
Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has been shown in early trials to reduce the symptoms of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of PAT as a third-line treatment for major depressive disorder compared to standard of care (SOC). We used an individual-level, probabilistic simulation model that portrays representative...
People with eating disorders experience high rates of psychiatric comorbidities, including anxiety disorders such as generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias. Anxiety can influence the prognosis of an eating disorder, by worsening symptoms, and acting as a barrier to treatment. Therefore, targeting treatment efforts towards ...
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by extreme food restriction, an intense fear of weight gain, and a distorted body image, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Conventional treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy often prove inadequate, especially in severe cases, highlighting th...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition that develops following exposure to a traumatic event. Individuals with this condition experience numerous physiological and behavioral alterations, including intrusive memories, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, heightened anxiety, hypervigilance, impaired cognition, elevated r...
As psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy gains momentum, clinical investigation of next-generation psychedelics may lead to novel compounds tailored for specific populations. 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine (2C-B) is a psychedelic phenethylamine reported to produce less dysphoria and subjective impairment than the psychedelic tryptamine psilocybin. Despite ...
Substance use disorder (SUD) is common in psychiatric patients and has a negative impact on health and well-being. However, SUD often goes untreated, and there is a need for psychiatrists, of all specialties, to address this pervasive clinical problem. In this review, the authors' goal is to provide a resource that describes treatments for SUD, using neurosc...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that can develop after a traumatic event, causing distressing symptoms, including intrusive re-experiencing symptoms, alterations in mood and cognition, and changes in arousal and reactivity. Few treatment options exist for patients who find conventional psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy to be inaccessible,...
Background: Psilocybin therapy (PT) produces rapid and persistent antidepressant effects in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the long-term effects of PT have never been compared with gold-standard treatments for MDD such as pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy alone or in combination. Methods: This is a 6-month follow-up study of a phase 2, double-blind...
For decades, psychedelics have been investigated for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Specifically, evidence suggests that psychedelics may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of alcohol use disorder. Several studies with classic psychedelics, including LSD and psilocybin, show promising results, with psychedelics decreasing alcohol drinking ...
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic mental disease that affects approximately 2% of the population. Obsessions and compulsions are troublesome for patients and may disturb their everyday activities. The pathogenesis of this disease is still not fully elucidated, but dysfunctions of serotonin-, dopamine- and glutamate-mediated neurotransmission t...
Introduction Since the last edition of the Black Book, several innovative agents have been approved or are poised to be approved in the coming year. These include novel antidepressants, the first muscarine agonist for the treatment of schizophrenia, the first psychedelic which may be approved for the treatment of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and th...
IntroductionPsilocybin, a naturally occurring serotonergic agonist in some mushroom species, has shown promise as a novel, fast-acting pharmacotherapy seeking to overcome the limitations of conventional first-line antidepressants. Studying psilocybin effects on cognition and emotional processing may help to clarify the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic p...
IntroductionAlcohol Use Disorder (AUD) poses an ongoing significant global health burden. AUD is highly prevalent and affects not only the individuals with AUD, but also their communities and society at large. Even though pharmacotherapy is an integral part of AUD treatment, the few available substances show limited efficacy and limited clinical impact. Thus...
IntroductionDepression is a common disabling psychiatric disorder, which - in extreme cases - may lead to suicide if untreated or inadequately treated. Despite the availability of various treatments for depression, including pharmacotherapy, there is still a need to search for new agents with higher effectiveness and faster onset of action, especially for pa...
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a subgroup of major depressive disorder in which the use of classical antidepressant treatments fails to achieve satisfactory treatment results. Although there are various definitions and grading models for TRD, common criteria for assessing TRD have still not been established. However, a common feature of any TRD mode...
The desire to find a gold-standard therapy for depression is still ongoing. Developing one universal and effective pharmacotherapy remains troublesome due to the high complexity and variety of symptoms. Over the last decades, the understanding of the mechanism of pathophysiology of depression and its key consequences for brain functioning have undergone sign...
Since its emergence in the 1960s, the serotonergic theory of depression bore fruit in the discovery of a plethora of antidepressant drugs affecting the lives of millions of patients. While crucial in the history of drug development, recent studies undermine the effectiveness of currently used antidepressant drugs in comparison to placebo, emphasizing the lon...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex disorder expressed as a variety of neurobiological symptoms, including anxiety, re-experiencing, hyperarousal, and avoidance symptoms, along with comorbidities such as anxiety, depression, and increased risk for self-medicating substance abuse. Currently, there are only two approved medications in the United...
