Research Square
July 9, 2026
Samuel Westenhöfer, Yamina Ehrt, Barbora Provaznikova et al.
Abstract Background : Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is associated with substantial clinical and socioeconomic burden. Intranasal esketamine has shown efficacy for TRD in clinical trials and real-world studies. However, evidence on optimal maintenance scheduling is limited. We therefore investigated whether two maintenance schedules differing in their inter-dose intervals were associated...
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
June 19, 2026
Judith Rohde, Tyler M Moore, Kathryn Walker et al.
Ketamine combined with psychotherapy has shown promise in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but predictors of clinical benefit remain unclear. In this systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA), we examined patient- and treatment-level predictors of PTSD symptom change after combined treatment. Eligible studies combined ketamine with psychotherapy in...
December 10, 2025
Johannes Jungwirth, Samuel Westenhöfer, Helena Aicher et al.
Abstract Psilocybin has demonstrated promising antidepressant effects in depression and treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in controlled clinical trials. However, its effectiveness and safety in real-world therapeutic settings remain largely unknown. Although psilocybin is not yet approved as an antidepressant treatment, Switzerland’s unique legal framework allows its limited medical use for...
Journal of Affective Disorders
November 22, 2025
Carlos Trenado, Erich Seifritz, Sebastian Olbrich et al.
4 citations
Ketamine and its enantiomer esketamine are NMDA receptor antagonists that have shown consistent antidepressant effects in major depression disorder (MDD). These effects suggest an active role of glutamate in the pathophysiology of depression. It has been hypothesized that acute increase of glutamate neurotransmission in the prefrontal cortex following treatment with (es)ketamine leads to...
Brain
October 19, 2025
Rebecca C Coray, Vincent Beliveau, Josua Zimmermann et al.
1 citation
Regular recreational use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "Ecstasy") has been consistently linked to verbal memory dysfunctions, whose neurobiological origins remain unclear. Although neurochemical, structural, and functional alterations resulting from repeated MDMA intake have been identified in user populations, only limited knowledge exists regarding potential interrelationships...
Imaging Neurosci (Camb)
September 29, 2025
Klemens Egger, Daniel Meling, Firuze Polat et al.
1 citation
Meditation, psychedelics, and brain connectivity: A randomized controlled resting-state fMRI study of N,N-dimethyltryptamine and harmine in a meditation retreat.
Universität Zürich, ZORA
September 29, 2025
Klemens Egger, Daniel Meling, Firuze Polat et al.
Both meditation and psychedelics are widely studied for their therapeutic potential in mental health. Recent research suggests potential synergies between mindfulness practice and psychedelics, though empirical studies have primarily focused on psilocybin. This study investigates the distinct and combined effects of mindfulness practice and an ayahuasca-inspired formulation containing...
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
September 1, 2025
Golo Kronenberg, Georgios Schoretsanitis, Erich Seifritz et al.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) has been known since the end of the eighteenth century. Today, N2O plays a huge role as a greenhouse gas and an ozone-depleting stratospheric molecule. The main sources of anthropogenic N2O emissions are agriculture, fuel combustion, wastewater treatment, and various industrial processes. By contrast, the contribution of medical N2O to the greenhouse effect appears to be...
BMJ Open
July 16, 2025
Golo Kronenberg, Anna Bankwitz, Barbora Provaznikova et al.
Suicidal thoughts and behaviours are linked to a wide range of mental health conditions. New interest in the psychiatric benefits of nitrous oxide (N2O) has only recently emerged. The broad pharmacological effects of N2O are thought to be due in large part to N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonism and opioid effects. The purpose of this study protocol is to test whether inhalational N2O exerts rapid...
Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging
July 1, 2025
Anna Monn, Corinne Eicher, Annia Rüesch et al.
2 citations
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is associated with reduced quality of life and elevated mortality, posing a major challenge to psychiatric care. After non-response to conventional treatments, next-level interventions such as (es)ketamine are recommended, though remission rates remain variable. Identifying reliable markers of treatment response is therefore critical. Recent evidence...
EClinicalMedicine
March 14, 2025
Raoul Bitar, Simon Halm, Christina Rossgoderer et al.
42 citations
Swiss National Science Foundation under the framework of Neuron Cofund, Swiss Neuromatrix Foundation, and Heffter Young Investigator Fellowship Award.
Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie
March 1, 2025
Klemens Egger, Javier Jareño Redondo, Jovin Müller et al.
14 citations
Ayahuasca, a traditional psychoactive Amazonian brew, usually contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and β-carboline (harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine) monoamine oxidase inhibitors. However, the pharmacological interactions between these compounds remain incompletely understood. In this study, we developed an ayahuasca-inspired formulation containing DMT and harmine, aiming to...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
December 28, 2024
Michael J Mueller, Helena Aicher, Dario Dornbierer et al.
10 citations
Recent interest in the clinical use of psychedelics has highlighted plant-derived medicines like ayahuasca showing rapid-acting and sustainable therapeutic effects in various psychiatric conditions. This traditional Amazonian plant decoction contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and β-carboline alkaloids such as harmine. However, its use is often accompanied by distressing effects like nausea,...
Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
August 16, 2024
Judith Rohde, Elena Hickmann, Marco Buchmann et al.
7 citations
This pilot case series investigated the feasibility and efficacy of an eight-week therapy program, combining nasally administered ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) with trauma-focused psychotherapy, for individuals with chronic, treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Three patients with chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD underwent the eight-week therapy program. Clinical assessments...
iScience
May 19, 2024
Andres Ort, John W Smallridge, Erich Seifritz et al.
1 citation
Serotonergic psychedelics hold promise as a treatment modality for various psychiatric disorders and are currently applied in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. We investigated the learning effects of the serotonin receptor agonist psilocybin in a probabilistic cue-reward task with emotional cues in the form of neutral or fearful faces, presented either consciously or subconsciously. This...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
May 1, 2024
Michael Colla, Benjamin Offenhammer, Hanne Scheerer et al.
23 citations
We investigated the antidepressant effects of a novel oral prolonged-release formulation of racemic ketamine (KET01) in patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression (TRD) as add-on therapy. Patients were randomized to an additional 160 mg/day or 240 mg/day KET01 or placebo for 14 days. The primary endpoint was change in Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores from...
Scientific Reports
April 23, 2024
Berit Singer, Daniel Meling, Matthias Hirsch-Hoffmann et al.
The original version of this Article contained an error in the name of author Berit Singer which was incorrectly given as Singer Berit.
Elife
April 17, 2024
Flora Moujaes, Jie Lisa Ji, Masih Rahmati et al.
23 citations
Ketamine has emerged as one of the most promising therapies for treatment-resistant depression. However, inter-individual variability in response to ketamine is still not well understood and it is unclear how ketamine's molecular mechanisms connect to its neural and behavioral effects. We conducted a single-blind placebo-controlled study, with participants blinded to their treatment condition....
Scientific Reports
March 26, 2024
Berit Singer, Daniel Meling, Matthias Hirsch-Hoffmann et al.
15 citations
In this study, for the first time, we explored a dataset of functional magnetic resonance images collected during focused attention and open monitoring meditation before and after a five-day psilocybin-assisted meditation retreat using a recently established approach, based on the Mapper algorithm from topological data analysis. After generating subject-specific maps for two groups (psilocybin...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
December 19, 2023
Nuno M.p. de Matos, Philipp Staempfli, Erich Seifritz et al.
8 citations
While there's been clinical success and growing research interest in hypnosis, neurobiological underpinnings induced by hypnosis remain unclear. In this fMRI study (which is part of a larger hypnosis project) with 50 hypnosis-experienced participants, we analyzed neural and physiological responses during two hypnosis states, comparing them to non-hypnotic control conditions and to each other....
Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging
July 17, 2023
Flora Moujaes, Nathalie M. Rieser, Christophe Phillips et al.
19 citations
BACKGROUND: Pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods of inducing altered states of consciousness (ASCs) are becoming increasingly relevant in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. While comparisons between them are often drawn, to date no study has directly compared their neural correlates. METHODS: To address this knowledge gap, we directly compared 2 pharmacological methods...
iScience
May 19, 2023
Andres Ort, John W Smallridge, Simone Sarasso et al.
47 citations
Exploring the neurobiology of the profound changes in consciousness induced by classical psychedelic drugs may require novel neuroimaging methods. Serotonergic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin produce states of increased sensory-emotional awareness and arousal, accompanied by increased spontaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) signal diversity. By directly stimulating cortical tissue, the...
EClinicalMedicine
February 1, 2023
Robin von Rotz, Eva M Schindowski, Johannes Jungwirth et al.
345 citations
Psilocybin has been suggested as a novel, rapid-acting treatment for depression. Two consecutive doses have been shown to markedly decrease symptom severity in an open-label setting or when compared to a waiting list group. To date, to our knowledge, no other trial compared a single, moderate dose of psilocybin to a placebo condition. In this double-blind, randomised clinical trial, 52...
EClinicalMedicine
February 1, 2023
Robin von Rotz, Eva M Schindowski, Johannes Jungwirth et al.
8 citations
correction
We wish to provide a correction of the colour representation of Fig. 2 in order to harmonise the colours representing the Psilocybin and the Placebo condition with the corresponding figure caption and with the colour codes from all other figures across the manuscript. Fig. 2 now depicts the Psilocybin condition in blue and the Placebo condition in yellow. The error occurred as a result of an...
Frontiers in Pharmacology
2023
Dario Dornbierer, Laurenz Marten, Jovin Mueller et al.
32 citations
Recently, the Amazonian plant medicine "ayahuasca"-containing the psychedelic compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and numerous β-carboline alkaloids, such as harmine-has been suggested to exhibit beneficial effects in patients with affective and other mental health disorders. Although ayahuasca ingestion is considered safe, its pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and tolerability profile pose...