Both psychedelic substances and meditation have been proposed to facilitate personally meaningful and transformative experiences, with insights playing a central role. However, previous research has mainly relied on questionnaires, limiting the range of insights that can be identified. In this study, we recruited participants who provided narrative reports o...
Neurological and psychiatric disorders are considered one of the major problems of today's societies and cause many individual and social problems. Current treatments are effective, but due to their burdens, there is always an effort to introduce novel treatments. Psychedelics, a diverse group of psychoactive compounds, including LSD, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, ...
Opioid-related overdose deaths have reached record high levels, and novel treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) are needed. The three United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications for OUD function primarily at the mu-opioid receptor. While these remain the gold-standard treatment for OUD, they have shortcomings and treatment option...
Ketamine has transformed depression treatment by providing therapeutic relief within a single day, unlike monoaminergic antidepressants that require weeks to take effect. Here, we conducted whole-brain screening in mice to compare drug-evoked c-fos expression-acting as a marker of brain activity leading to protein synthesis-dependent forms of plasticity-foll...
BackgroundRecent evidence suggests that psychedelics can induce rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects. The generally acknowledged explanation for these traits is the phenomenon of neuroplasticity, although the exact underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear.AimsThis study investigates the effects of psilocin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and...
Ketamine and its enantiomers, esketamine and arketamine, have emerged as promising treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This cross-sectional study evaluates the regulatory alignment of 40 clinical trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, focusing on the methodological challenges. The study highlights methodological inconsistencies, particularly a...
Background: Despite significant advancements in the treatment of depression, challenges such as inadequate response rates and high placebo effects highlight the need for improved therapies and a deeper understanding of treatment expectations. Patient expectations play a crucial role in treatment outcomes but have not been systematically investigated in the c...
Background: Despite significant advancements in the treatment of depression, challenges such as inadequate response rates and high placebo effects highlight the need for improved therapies and a deeper understanding of treatment expectations. Patient expectations play a crucial role in treatment outcomes but have not been systematically investigated in the c...
Depressive disorders continue to pose a major clinical challenge worldwide, particularly given the high prevalence and increasing number of treatment-resistant cases. Over the past decade, advances in research have elucidated the antidepressant potential of psilocybin and other 5-HT₂A receptor agonists in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and tre...
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 ...
Psychedelic substances are increasingly recognized for their therapeutic potential to ease psychological suffering linked to end-of-life issues. However, amid renewed scientific and public interest, policy remains restrictive. Existing reviews have made progress in synthesizing the results of studies of psychedelic interventions, especially psilocybin, and p...
Background Cluster headache is an excruciating condition for which standard treatments are usually insufficient. Evidence has accumulated that serotonergic psychedelic indoleamines including psilocybin and LSD can be effective in preventing attacks. Methods In this case series, nine patients with episodic and chronic cluster headache that didn’t respond to c...
This systematic review explores the comparative efficacy and functional outcomes of psychedelic-assisted therapies in the management of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a comprehensive literature search was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sc...
OBJECTIVE: Psychedelics are able to trigger highly intense and profound alterations in self-consciousness, perception, affective, and cognitive processes. Indeed, recent studies show that ketamine and psilocybin could be used as fast-acting antidepressants. However, the molecular and neurochemical mechanisms of these psychedelics and their actions at the lev...
Neuroplasticity, the ability of the nervous system to adapt throughout an organism's lifespan, offers potential as both a biomarker and treatment target for neuropsychiatric conditions. Psychedelics, a burgeoning category of drugs, are increasingly prominent in psychiatric research, prompting inquiries into their mechanisms of action. Distinguishing themselv...
Anhedonia is a transdiagnostic domain that leads to poor disorder outcome and low remission rates. This narrative review describes a broad range of interventions targeting anhedonia, including pharmacological, neuromodulatory, behavioral, and lifestyle-based approaches. Drugs such as vortioxetine, agomelatine, bupropion, ketamine, and brexpiprazole show prom...
After decades of limited progress in depression treatment, recent advancements have sparked renewed interest in developing novel antidepressants, particularly rapid-acting antidepressants (RAADs). Despite these promising developments, there remains a significant gap in research on bipolar depression. While several antipsychotics have been investigated for th...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is an emerging treatment approach that often combines pharmacotherapeutic dosing sessions with more traditional psychotherapy. Despite limited formal regulatory approval, treatment seekers can currently access PAT through a variety of avenues, including ketamine treatment centers and “supported adult use” psilocybin centers...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is an emerging treatment approach that often combines pharmacotherapeutic dosing sessions with more traditional psychotherapy. Despite limited formal regulatory approval, treatment seekers can currently access PAT through a variety of avenues, including ketamine treatment centers and “supported adult use” psilocybin centers...
Psychoactive substances used for recreational purposes have mind-altering effects, but systematic evaluation of these effects is largely limited to self-reports. Automated analysis of expressed language (speech and written text) using natural language processing (NLP) tools can provide objective readouts of mental states. In this pre-registered systematic re...
