Headache The Journal of Head and Face Pain
December 29, 2025
Emmanuelle A. D. Schindler, Christopher Gottschalk, Brian Pittman et al.
1 citation
Abstract Objective The goals of this study were to examine the therapeutic effects and safety of psilocybin given as a pulsed regimen for the prevention of migraine and to consider the blinding integrity of an active control agent. Background The administration of a single low dose of psilocybin was observed to have lasting therapeutic effects in one small pilot trial in migraine, although the...
International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
August 11, 2025
Gihyun Yoon, Brian Pittman, E. Ralevski et al.
IMPORTANCE The comorbidity of major depressive disorder (MDD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is often treated inadequately. This study evaluated the impact of adding the opioid receptor blocker, naltrexone, to the NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist, ketamine, for the treatment of MDD comorbid with AUD. In so doing, it also attempted to shed light on the contribution of opioid receptor...
Psychopharmacology
October 1, 2024
Ardavan Mohammad Aghaei, Lia Urban Spillane, Brian Pittman et al.
9 citations
Recent reports have shown increased cannabis use among women, leading to growing concerns about cannabis use disorder (CUD). While there is preclinical evidence suggesting biological sex influences cannabinoid effects, human research remains scant. We investigated sex differences in the acute response to oral tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in humans. 56 healthy men and women with prior exposure to...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
September 1, 2024
Noah R Wolkowicz, Mehmet Sofuoglu, Brian Pittman et al.
Attentional bias (AB) is believed to be an important factor in the development and maintenance of both opioid use disorder (OUD) and chronic pain. Cannabis and its main psychoactive constituent, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), produce analgesic effects via processes that are potentially relevant to AB and is commonly used by persons with OUD. This exploratory study investigated if THC...
Journal of the Neurological Sciences
May 15, 2024
Emmanuelle A. D. Schindler, R Andrew Sewell, Christopher Gottschalk et al.
37 citations
In a recent randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, we observed a nonsignificant reduction of attack frequency in cluster headache after pulse administration of psilocybin (10 mg/70 kg, 3 doses, 5 days apart each). We carried out a blinded extension phase to consider the safety and efficacy of repeating the pulse regimen. Eligible participants returned to receive a psilocybin pulse...
The American Journal on Addictions
May 1, 2024
Michael Rogan, Julio C Nunes, Catherine Z Xie et al.
2 citations
Childhood trauma (CT) increases addiction vulnerability. We examined CT's impact on delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) effects. This is a post-hoc analysis of a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial investigating the effects of oral THC (10, 20 mg) among 25 persons receiving methadone for opioid use disorder (OUD). Greater CT was associated with lower aversive effects from higher THC...
Scientific Reports
April 17, 2024
Jordan Sloshower, Richard J. Zeifman, Jeffrey Guss et al.
56 citations
Several phase II studies have demonstrated that psilocybin-assisted therapy shows therapeutic potential across a spectrum of neuropsychiatric conditions, including major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the mechanisms underlying its often persisting beneficial effects remain unclear. Observational research suggests that improvements in psychological flexibility may mediate therapeutic...
General Hospital Psychiatry
2024
Mina Ansari, Brian Pittman, Daniel S Tylee et al.
6 citations
This study aimed to examine blood pressure changes during ketamine infusion for depression and exploring the factors associated with these changes. This study is a retrospective chart-review of patients with depression undergoing ketamine infusion at Yale Psychiatry Hospital during a 7-year period. Blood pressure (BP) was recorded every 10 min during the infusion. Surges in systolic and...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
June 30, 2023
Jordan Sloshower, Hamideh Safi-Aghdam, Surbhi Pathania et al.
47 citations
Background: Evidence suggests that serotonergic psychedelics (e.g. psilocybin), have rapid-acting and long-lasting antidepressant effects after a single dose. However, the mechanism underlying these effects remain unclear. One proposed mechanism is that these drugs promote neuroplasticity. However, this has not been conclusively demonstrated in humans. Aims: We hypothesized that relative to...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
March 20, 2023
Jordan Sloshower, Hamideh Safi-Aghdam, Surbhi Pathania et al.
153 citations
Background: Several early phase studies have demonstrated that psilocybin-assisted therapy has rapid-acting and persisting antidepressant effects from just one or two doses. However, methodological limitations (e.g., placebo-control, blinding) limit interpretability of the existing literature. Methods: In an exploratory placebo-controlled, within-subject, fixed-order study, individuals with...
Headache The Journal of Head and Face Pain
November 1, 2022
Christina Luddy, Yutong Zhu, Hayley Lindsey et al.
75 citations
Abstract Objective Using a patient‐informed regimen, we conducted an exploratory randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study to systematically investigate the effects of psilocybin in cluster headache. Background Sustained reductions in cluster headache burden after limited quantities of psilocybin‐containing mushrooms are anecdotally reported, although to date there are no controlled...
Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics
2021
Emmanuelle A. D. Schindler, R Andrew Sewell, Christopher Gottschalk et al.
138 citations
While anecdotal evidence suggests that select 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A (5-HT2A) receptor ligands, including psilocybin, may have long-lasting therapeutic effects after limited dosing in headache disorders, controlled investigations are lacking. In an exploratory double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, adults with migraine received oral placebo and psilocybin (0.143 mg/kg) in 2 test...
Neuropharmacology
June 2018
Patrick D Skosnik, Mihály Hajós, Jose A Cortes-Briones et al.
Cannabis use has been associated with altered sensory gating and neural oscillations. However, it is unclear which constituent in cannabis is responsible for these effects, or whether these are cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) mediated. Therefore, the present study in humans and rats examined whether cannabinoid administration would disrupt sensory gating and evoked oscillations utilizing...
Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry
October 3, 2017
Mohini Ranganathan, Rajiv Radhakrishnan, Peter H Addy et al.
Cannabis and agonists of the brain cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) produce acute memory impairments in humans. However, the extent to which cannabinoids impair the component processes of encoding and retrieval has not been established in humans. The objective of this analysis was to determine whether the administration of Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent of...
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
August 2015
Jose Cortes-Briones, Patrick D Skosnik, Daniel Mathalon et al.
Gamma (γ)-band oscillations play a key role in perception, associative learning, and conscious awareness and have been shown to be disrupted by cannabinoids in animal studies. The goal of this study was to determine whether cannabinoids disrupt γ-oscillations in humans and whether these effects relate to their psychosis-relevant behavioral effects. The acute, dose-related effects of...
Psychopharmacology
June 2014
Mohini Ranganathan, R Andrew Sewell, Michelle Carbuto et al.
A family history (FH) of alcoholism accounts for approximately 50% of the risk of developing alcohol problems. Several lines of preclinical evidence suggest that brain cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) function may mediate the effects of alcohol and risk for developing alcoholism including the observations that reduced CB1R function decreases alcohol-related behaviors and enhanced CB1R function...
Psychopharmacology
November 24, 2012
R. A. Sewell, Ashley Schnakenberg, Jacqueline Elander et al.
Cannabinoids have been shown to alter time perception, but existing literature has several limitations. Few studies have included both time estimation and production tasks, few control for subvocal counting, most had small sample sizes, some did not record subjects’ cannabis use, many tested only one dose, and used either oral or inhaled administration of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), leading...
Biological Psychiatry
November 15, 2012
Mohini Ranganathan, Ashley Schnakenberg, Patrick D. Skosnik et al.
125 citations
Salvia divinorum (Salvia) is an increasingly popular recreational drug amongst adolescents and young adults. Its primary active ingredient, Salvinorin A (SA)-a highly selective agonist at the κ opiate receptor-is believed to be one of the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogens. However, there is little experimental data on the effects of SA in humans. In a 3-day, double-blind,...
Psychopharmacology
February 2012
Michelle Carbuto, R Andrew Sewell, Ashley Williams et al.
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is one of the few cannabinoid receptor ligands that can be used to probe the cannabinoid system in humans. Despite increasing interest in the cannabinoid receptor system, use of intravenous THC as a research tool has been limited by concerns about its abuse liability and psychoactive effects. This study aims to evaluate the safety of all intravenous THC...
Consciousness and Cognition
June 1, 2011
Michelle Neider, Edward F Pace-Schott, Erica Forselius et al.
Activity in the prefrontal cortex may distinguish the meta-awareness experienced during lucid dreams from its absence in normal dreams. To examine a possible relationship between dream lucidity and prefrontal task performance, we carried out a prospective study in 28 high school students. Participants performed the Wisconsin Card Sort and Iowa Gambling tasks, then for 1 week kept dream journals...
Psychopharmacology
March 2009
Deepak Cyril D'Souza, Brian Pittman, Edward Perry et al.
Acute and chronic exposure to cannabinoids has been associated with cognitive deficits, a higher risk for schizophrenia and other drug abuse. However, the precise mechanism underlying such effects is not known. Preclinical studies suggest that cannabinoids modulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Accordingly, we hypothesized that Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC), the...
Psychopharmacology
July 2008
Deepak Cyril D'Souza, Gabriel Braley, Rebecca Blaise et al.
Cannabinoids produce a spectrum of effects in humans including euphoria, cognitive impairments, psychotomimetic effects, and perceptual alterations. The extent to which dopaminergic systems contribute to the effects of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta-9-THC) remains unclear. This study evaluated whether pretreatment with a dopamine receptor antagonist altered the effects of Delta-9-THC in...