Background: Self-disorders, or anomalous disturbances in the basic sense of self, have been described in psychosis-risk states and may contribute to social cognitive impairment and functioning. This study examined self-disorder severity and associations with social cognition and functioning across individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and...
Background: Research on basic self-disorders (BSD) has expanded since the introduction of the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE). Although originally formulated as characterizing schizophrenia spectrum disorders, EASE-defined BSD have been reported in other psychiatric conditions and in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P), raising questions about their...
Serotonergic psychedelics and 3,4-methylendioxtmethamphetamine (MDMA) are promising treatments for mental disorders with a continuously evolving evidence base. We searched Pubmed/Scopus/clinical trial registries up to 08july2025 for double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing MDMA or serotonergic psychedelics in patients with mental disorders. Primary outcomes were change in...
Despite a renewed scientific interest in lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), its local neural effects remain underexplored. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explored and compared LSD-induced changes in local activity (amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations: ALFF) and local connectivity (regional homogeneity: ReHo), assessing their relationship to regional receptor density....
CNS SpectrumsFebruary 19, 2025M. Koummati, J. Vrublevska, M. de Hert et al.
Background It has been reported that abnormal experiences could be common in the general “healthy” population, with the vast majority of individuals never proceeding to manifest a frank mental disorder. Aims This study aimed to quantify subthreshold psychiatric symptoms in the general population. Methods The protocol included clinicodemographic data and a mental symptoms questionnaire, and...
The revival of psilocybin in psychopharmacological research heralds a potential paradigm shift for treating mood and anxiety disorders, and other psychiatric conditions beyond the psychotic spectrum. This critical review evaluates current evidence on psilocybin's efficacy, juxtaposing potential benefits with the practical aspects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) and the...
To test how attentional bias and explicit liking are influenced by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and whether these effects are moderated by cannabidiol (CBD). Double-blind, randomised, within-subjects cross-over study. NIHR Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility at King's College Hospital, London, United Kingdom. Forty-six infrequent cannabis users (cannabis use <1 per week). Across...
Abnormal self-experiences are a common feature of major depression despite their absence from current diagnostic manuals. Current diagnostic criteria leave us with an impoverished conception of depressive disorders, and they fail to exploit the diverse experiential alterations that might be useful for understanding and diagnosing patients, and last but not least for explaining the aetiology of...
As countries adopt more permissive cannabis policies, it is increasingly important to identify strategies that can reduce the harmful effects of cannabis use. This study aimed to determine if increasing the CBD content of cannabis can reduce its harmful effects. Forty-six healthy, infrequent cannabis users participated in a double-blind, within-subject, randomised trial of cannabis preparations...
Psychosis is the most ineffable experience of mental disorder. We provide here the first co-written bottom-up review of the lived experience of psychosis, whereby experts by experience primarily selected the subjective themes, that were subsequently enriched by phenomenologically-informed perspectives. First-person accounts within and outside the medical field were screened and discussed in...
The psychosis spectrum comprises heterogeneous disorders characterized by both world-related and self-related symptoms. How these symptoms may arise with similar features in spite of the different aetiologies is yet an unsolved question. In behavior narrative review, we compare three conditions characterized by psychotic experiences (schizophrenia, substance-use disorder and...
Self-disorders (SDs) (from the German Ichstörungen) are alterations of the first-person perspective, long associated with schizophrenia, particularly in early phases. Although psychopathological features of SDs continue to be studied, their neurobiological underpinnings are unknown. This makes it difficult to integrate SDs into contemporary models of psychosis. The present review aims to...
Following the publication of Karl Jaspers' General Psychopathology (1913), delusions have been characterized as being nonunderstandable in terms of the person's biography, motivations, and historical-cultural context. According to Jaspers, this loss of understandability is due to an underlying neurobiological process, which has interrupted the normal development of the individual's personality....
BACKGROUND: Cannabis can induce transient psychotic symptoms, but not all users experience these adverse effects. We compared the neural response to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in healthy volunteers in whom the drug did or did not induce acute psychotic symptoms. Method In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, pseudorandomized design, 21 healthy men with minimal experience of cannabis were...
The aberrant processing of salience is thought to be a fundamental factor underlying psychosis. Cannabis can induce acute psychotic symptoms, and its chronic use may increase the risk of schizophrenia. We investigated whether its psychotic effects are mediated through an influence on attentional salience processing. To examine the effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and cannabidiol...
Although the effects of cannabis on perception are well documented, little is known about their neural basis or how these may contribute to the formation of psychotic symptoms. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the effects of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) during visual and auditory processing in healthy volunteers. In total, 14 healthy...
Cannabis sativa, the most widely used illicit drug, has profound effects on levels of anxiety in animals and humans. Although recent studies have helped provide a better understanding of the neurofunctional correlates of these effects, indicating the involvement of the amygdala and cingulate cortex, their reciprocal influence is still mostly unknown. In this study dynamic causal modelling (DCM)...
BACKGROUND: We conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence for specific effects of cannabis on brain structure and function. The review focuses on the cognitive changes associated with acute and chronic use of the drug. METHOD: We reviewed literature reporting neuroimaging studies of chronic or acute cannabis use published up until January 2009. The search was conducted using Medline,...
CONTEXT: Cannabis sativa use can impair verbal learning, provoke acute psychosis, and increase the risk of schizophrenia. It is unclear where C. sativa acts in the human brain to modulate verbal learning and to induce psychotic symptoms. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of 2 main psychoactive constituents of C. sativa, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta9-THC) and cannabidiol, on regional...
CONTEXT: Cannabis use can both increase and reduce anxiety in humans. The neurophysiological substrates of these effects are unknown. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of 2 main psychoactive constituents of Cannabis sativa (Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol [Delta9-THC] and cannabidiol [CBD]) on regional brain function during emotional processing. DESIGN: Subjects were studied on 3 separate...
This study examined the effect of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) on brain activation during a motor inhibition task. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioural measures were recorded while 15 healthy volunteers performed a Go/No-Go task following administration of either THC or CBD or placebo in a double-blind, pseudo-randomized, placebo-controlled repeated...
to experience 'an extremely stimulated imagination' caused by an accidental ingestion of LSD.Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting LSD.This day has become known as 'Bicycle Day' as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab.LSD was initially hailed as a wonder drug for use in psychoanalysis, particularly...