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Christopher L. Averill

5 papers in the library · 64 citations · publishing 2020-2023

Papers

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Biological embedding of early trauma: the role of higher prefrontal synaptic strength

European Journal of Psychotraumatology August 29, 2023 Lihong Jiang, Amanda J. F. Tamman, Christopher L. Averill et al. 8 citations

Background: Early trauma predicts poor psychological and physical health. Glutamatergic synaptic processes offer one avenue for understanding this relationship, given glutamate's abundance and involvement in reward and stress sensitivity, emotion, and learning. Trauma-induced glutamatergic excitotoxicity may alter neuroplasticity and approach/avoidance tendencies, increasing risk for...

The potential of ketamine for posttraumatic stress disorder: a review of clinical evidence.

Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology 2023 Anya Ragnhildstveit, Jeremy Roscoe, Lisa C. Bass et al. 49 citations

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating condition, for which there are few pharmacological agents, often with a delayed onset of action and poor efficacy. Trauma-focused psychotherapies are further limited by few trained providers and low patient engagement. This frequently results in disease chronicity as well as psychiatric and medical comorbidity, with considerable negative...

mTORC1 inhibitor effects on rapid ketamine-induced reductions in suicidal ideation in patients with treatment-resistant depression.

Journal of Affective Disorders 2022 L. Averill, C. Averill, R. Gueorguieva et al.

Suicide is a public health crisis with limited treatment options. Ketamine has demonstrated rapid and robust improvements in suicidal ideation (SI). The parent study for the secondary pilot analyses presented here was a double-blind, cross-over trial that found pretreatment with the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) prolonged the antidepressant effects of ketamine. Here we...

A Robust and Reproducible Connectome Fingerprint of Ketamine is Highly Associated with the Connectomic Signature of Antidepressants

medRxiv Preprint Server April 10, 2020 Chadi G. Abdallah, Kyung-Heup Ahn, Lynnette A. Averill et al. 1 citation preprint

Over the past decade, various N-Methyl-D-Aspartate modulators have failed in clinical trials, underscoring the challenges of developing novel rapid-acting antidepressants based solely on the receptor or regional targets of ketamine. Thus, identifying the effect of ketamine on the brain circuitry and networks is becoming increasingly critical. In this longitudinal functional magnetic resonance...

Neurobiological Mechanisms of Ketamine: Depression, Suicide, Trauma, and Chronic Stress Pathologies

Psychiatric Annals February 1, 2020 Lynnette A. Averill, Christopher L. Averill, Chadi G. Abdallah 6 citations

The serendipitous discovery of ketamine's robust antidepressant effects has served as a major catalyst to usher in new era of drug development and a paradigm shift in our understanding of the neurobiology of chronic stress pathology (CSP). This review provides a selective synthesis of (1) the historical foundations of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor modulators and the path to discovering...