Neuropharmacology
September 11, 2026
Laura Rullo, Loredana Maria Losapio, Hela Mrizak et al.
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) represents a major public health challenge, with current pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments showing limited efficacy. Recent clinical evidence suggests that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may be effective for AUD, although concerns remain regarding its safety and potential for recreational use. This study investigated the effects of MDMA administration on...
Research Square
March 31, 2026
Marcus W. Meinhardt, Ivan Skorodumov, Florian Walter et al.
preprint
Abstract Alcohol use disorder is a major global health problem, and current treatments often fail to produce lasting reductions in harmful drinking1,2. Psychedelic-assisted therapies may promote durable behavioural change by enhancing brain plasticity during emotionally meaningful experiences, but progress has been limited by a lack of experimental models that capture these context-dependent...
Psychopharmacology
November 15, 2025
Elisabetta Ciccocioppo, Sara Massetti, Marcus W. Meinhardt et al.
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) represents a significant medical challenge, with available therapeutic approaches having limited efficacy. Emerging data suggest that psychedelic compounds could represent an alternative treatment for AUD. Among this class of molecules, ketamine, a dissociative psychedelic, shows promising properties. It reduces alcohol drinking in rodents and in humans it is used to...
Neuropsychopharmacology
May 1, 2025
Marcus W. Meinhardt, Ivan Skorodumov, Jérôme Jeanblanc et al.
8 citations
The drug development process in psychiatry faces significant challenges due to low reproducibility rates in animal testing, which often leads to translation failures. To address this issue, we introduce a new approach in psychiatric drug development: a preclinical randomized controlled trial (preRCT). To demonstrate its potential utility, we conducted a multi-center preRCT using the alcohol...
Psychopharmacology
July 1, 2023
Federica Benvenuti, D Colombo, Laura Soverchia et al.
14 citations
For most psychiatric conditions, including alcohol use disorder (AUD), FDA-approved pharmacological treatments are limited and their efficacy is restricted to only certain subgroups of patients. Scientific interest in the potential of psychedelic drugs has dramatically increased because of clinical preliminary evidence of efficacy in treating various psychiatric disorders. One of the most...
European Neuropsychopharmacology
July 2014
Serena Stopponi, Laura Soverchia, Massimo Ubaldi et al.
Cannabis derivatives are among the most widely used illicit substances among young people. The addictive potential of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major active ingredient of cannabis is well documented in scientific literature. However, the consequence of THC exposure during adolescence on occurrence of addiction for other drugs of abuse later in life is still controversial. To...
European Journal of Pharmacology
August 9, 2002
Roberto Ciccocioppo, Lorena Antonelli, Michela Biondini et al.
Cannabis derivatives and alcohol are widely co-abused, particularly among adolescents. Since both ethanol and cannabinoids are known to impair learning and memory, the present study investigated in rats the effects of combined exposure to ethanol and delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in a memory task, the object recognition test. The results of the present study provide evidence that ethanol,...