International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 9, 2026
J Keeler, H Himmerich, J Treasure et al.
Abstract Background Approximately a third of people with anorexia nervosa (AN) develop a severe and enduring form of the illness, which is often accompanied by depression. This can be a key barrier to recovery. Anti-depressant medications are less effective in treating depression in patients with acute AN, thus new pharmacological treatment options are needed. Ketamine is currently used for...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
July 1, 2026
Marcus J. Glennon, Catherine Bird, Prateek Yadav et al.
2 citations
Setting up a psychedelic study can be a long, arduous, and Kafkaesque process. Researchers are faced with a host of challenges in this rapidly evolving field, necessitating a range of considerations that remain largely unstandardised. Many of the complexities inherent to psychedelic research also challenge existing assumptions around, for example, approaches to psychiatric prescribing, the...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
June 16, 2026
Alice Caulfield, Matthew Butler, Mitul A. Mehta
The therapeutic potential of psychedelics is currently being explored in a range of neuropsychiatric conditions. Nevertheless, their designation as Schedule 1 substances causes substantial regulatory and economic barriers to research. Rigorous human mechanistic studies are required to address the critical knowledge gaps surrounding the mechanisms underlying the putative treatment effects of...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
June 12, 2026
Timothy Lawn, Johan Nakuci, Steve Cr Williams et al.
Analyses of neuroimaging data increasingly leverage the distribution of neurotransmitter receptors derived from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to bridge the gap between micro- and macro-scale brain function. However, these receptor maps are highly spatially overlapping which can give rise to interpretive and analytical challenges. Here, we systematically investigate the impact of spatial...
The American journal of psychiatry
June 1, 2026
Luke A. Jelen, Owen O'Daly, Fernando O Zelaya et al.
2 citations
Accumulating evidence suggests that the opioid system may modulate ketamine's rapid antidepressant effects. The objective of this study was to test whether opioid system modulation via naltrexone alters ketamine's acute effects on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in major depressive disorder (MDD), and whether these changes relate to symptom measures and map onto receptor density profiles....
Translational Psychiatry
May 12, 2026
Linda Bryant, Laith Alexander, Sergio Mena et al.
Ketamine has demonstrated rapid antidepressant efficacy in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but clinical decision-making is challenging due to variability in individual response. Current trial-and-error prescribing practices may expose patients to ineffective treatment and avoidable adverse effects, underscoring the need for reliable predictive tools to optimize treatment selection and...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
December 26, 2025
Alice Caulfield, Allan H. Young, Mitul A. Mehta
2 citations
Psychedelics are gaining attention as putative treatments for a range of psychiatric conditions, and evidence suggests that they produce sustained behavioural and clinical change. Enhanced learning is an emerging candidate mechanism mediating these sustained effects. This narrative review synthesises evidence across behavioural, neural and computational levels to examine the current evidence...
Nature Medicine
July 24, 2025
Luke A. Jelen, David J Lythgoe, James Stone et al.
29 citations
We investigated the potential role of the opioid system in modulating glutamatergic effects of ketamine administration in major depressive disorder. Twenty-six adults with major depressive disorder participated in a double-blind crossover study, receiving oral placebo or 50 mg naltrexone before an intravenous infusion of 0.5 mg per kg ketamine. Brain glutamatergic activity in the anterior...
bioRxiv
July 22, 2025
Alice Caulfield, Lorraine Li, Famia Askari et al.
preprint
Introduction: Psychedelics are emerging as potential treatments for neuropsychiatric conditions, with evidence suggesting a single administration can lead to enduring behavioural changes. While the underlying putative mechanism(s) remain unclear, there is evidence supporting altered learning as a key candidate. Aim: This systematic review examined studies assessing the effects of psychedelics...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
June 20, 2025
Mutahira Qureshi, Daniel Silman, Romayne Gadelrab et al.
3 citations
Ketamine, a rapid-acting N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist used as a therapeutic for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), is usually administered intravenously or intranasally. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase 1 study investigated safety and tolerability (primary endpoint), pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of an immediate-release oral ketamine....
BJPsych Open
June 1, 2025
Anna Borissova, Allan H. Young, Mitul A. Mehta et al.
Aims: Ketamine and behavioural activation (BA) reduce levels of anhedonia in major depressive disorder (MDD), though neither resolves anhedonia. Combining these treatments could yield additive or even multiplicative benefits. This poster summarises the development of a PhD fellowship proposal, discussing: (1) the initial patient and public involvement (PPI) interviews, exploring views on...
Wellcome Open Research
April 22, 2025
Matthew Butler, Catherine Bird, Carolina Maggio et al.
3 citations
Background Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a common cause of neurological symptoms including seizures and movement disorders. It can be debilitating, is associated with high health and social care costs, and can have a poor prognosis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has suggested FND is a multi-network disorder. Converging evidence suggests that other mechanisms including...
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 28, 2025
Marcus J. Glennon, Catherine Bird, Prateek Yadav et al.
Setting up a psychedelic study can be a long, arduous, and kafkaesque process. This rapidly-developing field poses several unique challenges for researchers, necessitating a range of considerations that have not yet been standardised. Many of the complexities inherent to psychedelic research also challenge existing assumptions around, for example, approaches to psychiatric prescribing, the...
Wellcome Open Research
2024
Matt Butler, Catherine Bird, Carolina Maggio et al.
4 citations
Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a common cause of neurological symptoms including seizures and movement disorders. It can be debilitating, is associated with high health and social care costs, and can have a poor prognosis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has suggested FND is a multi-network disorder. Converging evidence suggests that other mechanisms including...
Translational Psychiatry
December 3, 2023
Laith Alexander, Peter C. T. Hawkins, Jennifer W. Evans et al.
26 citations
Abstract Activity changes within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are implicated in the antidepressant effects of ketamine, but the ACC is cytoarchitectonically and functionally heterogeneous and ketamine’s effects may be subregion specific. In the context of a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial investigating the clinical and resting-state fMRI effects of intravenous...
Psychopharmacology
March 24, 2022
Timothy Lawn, Ottavia Dipasquale, Alexandros Vamvakas et al.
48 citations
Abstract Rationale LSD is the prototypical psychedelic. Despite a clear central role of the 5HT 2a receptor in its mechanism of action, the contributions of additional receptors for which it shows affinity and agonist activity remain unclear. Objectives We employed receptor-enriched analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT) to explore differences in functional connectivity (FC)...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
May 10, 2021
Laith Alexander, Luke A. Jelen, Mitul A. Mehta et al.
79 citations
The subdivisions of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) - including subgenual, perigenual and dorsal zones - are implicated in the etiology, pathogenesis and treatment of major depression. We review an emerging body of evidence which suggests that changes in ACC activity are critically important in mediating the antidepressant effects of ketamine, the prototypical member of an emerging class of...
medRxiv Preprint Server
December 7, 2020
Vasileia Kotoula, Argyris Stringaris, Nuria Mackes et al.
9 citations
preprint
Ketamine as an antidepressant improves anhedonia, a pernicious symptom of depression as early as 2h post-infusion. The effects of ketamine on anhedonia are thought to be exerted via actions on reward-related brain areas—yet, these actions remain largely unknown. This study examines ketamine’s effects during the anticipation and receipt of an expected reward, after the psychotomimetic effects of...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
December 19, 2019
J.M. Barnby, Vaughan Bell, Quinton Deeley et al.
4 citations
preprint
Abstract Altered dopamine transmission is thought to influence the formation of persecutory delusions. However, despite extensive evidence from clinical studies there is little experimental evidence on how modulating the dopamine system changes social attributions related to paranoia, and the salience of beliefs more generally. 27 healthy male participants received 150mg L-DOPA, 3mg...
Neuroimage
April 4, 2019
Ottavia Dipasquale, Pierluigi Selvaggi, Mattia Veronese et al.
79 citations
One of the main limitations of pharmacological fMRI is its inability to provide a molecular insight into the main effect of compounds, leaving an open question about the relationship between drug effects and haemodynamic response. The aim of this study is to investigate the acute effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on functional connectivity (FC) using a novel multimodal method...
Journal of Neuroscience
November 19, 2018
Anthony S. Gabay, Matthew J. Kempton, James Gilleen et al.
40 citations
Social decision-making is fundamental for successful functioning and can be affected in psychiatric illness and by serotoninergic modulation. The Prisoner's Dilemma is the archetypal paradigm to model cooperation and trust. However, the effect of serotonergic enhancement is poorly characterized, and its influence on the effect of variations in opponent behavior unknown. To address this, we...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
July 3, 2018
Joseph M Barnby, Mitul A. Mehta
18 citations
OPINION article Front. Psychiatry, 03 July 2018Sec. Psychopharmacology Volume 9 - 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00293
Psychopharmacology
May 19, 2015
R. Joules, O. Doyle, A. J. Schwarz et al.
77 citations
Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, has been studied in relation to the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia and increases dissociation, positive and negative symptom ratings. Ketamine effects brain function through changes in brain activity; these activity patterns can be modulated by pre-treatment of compounds known to attenuate the effects of ketamine on glutamate...
Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
April 1, 2014
Quinton Deeley, David A Oakley, Eamonn Walsh et al.
75 citations
Involuntary movements occur in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders and culturally influenced dissociative states (e.g., delusions of alien control and attributions of spirit possession). However, the underlying brain processes are poorly understood. We combined suggestion and fMRI in 15 highly hypnotically susceptible volunteers to investigate changes in brain activity accompanying...
PLoS One
2013
Quinton Deeley, Eamonn Walsh, David A Oakley et al.
48 citations
The feeling of voluntary control and awareness of movement is fundamental to our notions of selfhood and responsibility for actions, yet can be lost in neuropsychiatric syndromes (e.g. delusions of control, non-epileptic seizures) and culturally influenced dissociative states (e.g. attributions of spirit possession). The brain processes involved remain poorly understood. We used suggestion and...