medRxiv
July 23, 2026
Aaron M. Eisen, Philippe Goldin, Jyoti Mishra et al.
preprint
Abstract Emerging evidence suggests that adults with a history of early life adversity (ELA), while more susceptible to psychopathology, may also be particularly sensitive to the benefits of contemplative practices. In the present study, we examined whether ELA was associated with greater mental health benefits following a contemplative-based social resilience training program, administered as...
Community mental health journal
April 1, 2026
Kush V. Bhatt, Joseph Friedman, Lindsay L Benster et al.
Recreational psychedelic use is increasing, yet data on adverse events remains limited. This study characterized emergency department (ED) visits associated with recreational psychedelic use at UC San Diego Medical Center. We conducted a retrospective chart review of ED encounters (2010–2023). Cases were identified using ICD-10 hallucinogen-related codes and confirmed through manual review....
Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.)
August 1, 2025
Kush V. Bhatt, Jason Compton, Em Ellerman et al.
1 citation
Mystical experiences are powerful experiences that may have therapeutic value. Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, has shown potential to induce mystical experiences. However, little research has explored this phenomenon, particularly in treatment-resistant depression. We analyzed clinical data from 60 veterans with treatment-resistant depression receiving a total of 189 ketamine treatments....
JMIR Formative Research
July 17, 2025
Satish Jaiswal, Jason Nan, Seth Dizon et al.
5 citations
Depression in children is a concerning societal issue and can be associated with poor academic performance, school dropout, and poor overall quality of life. Additionally, child depression is often associated with parallel stress and depression in parents. This scenario highlights the urgent need for the development and implementation of accessible and scalable solutions that may cobenefit...
CNS Drugs
June 1, 2025
Sijia Zhang, Houtan Afshar, Peter J Colvonen et al.
1 citation
Ketamine and esketamine are increasingly used to manage treatment-resistant depression and have also been shown to reduce symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Little is known about how common comorbidities in the veteran population, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), may influence ketamine and esketamine treatment outcomes. In this retrospective...
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
November 1, 2024
Dhakshin Ramanathan, Jason Nan, Gillian Grennan et al.
10 citations
Interoceptive attention to internal sensory signals, such as the breath, is fundamental to mindfulness. However, interoceptive attention can be difficult to study, with many studies relying on subjective and retrospective measures. Response consistency is an established method for evaluating variability of attention on exteroceptive attention tasks, but it has rarely been applied to...
Psychiatry Research
May 1, 2024
Eric A. Miller, Houtan Totonchi Afshar, Jyoti Mishra et al.
12 citations
Ketamine helps some patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD), but reliable methods for predicting which patients will, or will not, respond to treatment are lacking. Herein, we aim to inform prediction models of non-response to ketamine/esketamine in adults with TRD. This is a retrospective analysis of PHQ-9 item response data from 120 patients with TRD who received repeated doses of...
medRxiv Preprint Server
July 3, 2023
Eric A. Miller, Houtan Totonchi Afshar, Jyoti Mishra et al.
preprint
Background Ketamine helps some patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD), but reliable methods for predicting which patients will, or will not, respond to treatment are lacking.
medRxiv Preprint Server
June 28, 2023
Mohammad Ali Shenasa, Houtan Totonchi Afshar, Eric A. Miller et al.
preprint
Background The antidepressant effects of ketamine and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) are hypothesized to rely on mechanisms of long-term-potentiation and synaptic plasticity. Cannabis, via activation of CB1 receptors has been shown to impair synaptic plasticity, suggesting that cannabis use might moderate the antidepressant effects of ketamine and/or rTMS.
EClinicalMedicine
May 7, 2022
Hewa Artin, Sean Bentley, Eamonn Mehaffey et al.
35 citations
Summary: Background: (S)-ketamine is a glutamatergic drug with potent and rapid acting effects for the treatment of depression. Little is known about the effectiveness of intranasal (S)-ketamine for treating patients with comorbid depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods: We performed a retrospective case series analysis of clinical outcomes in 35 Veterans with co-morbid...
Philippe Goldin, Aaron Eisen, Amanda Frazier et al.
preprint
Abstract Global events are becoming more complex at a swifter pace than humans are developing resilience. This leads to increasing dissonance and despair, especially in young adults who are experiencing mental distress and dread at exceedingly high rates. Awareness of global warming is increasing climate distress and decreasing self-efficacy. However, younger minds are also highly flexible,...