Ketamine, a fast-acting antidepressant, produces dissociative effects and promotes brain plasticity. Although preliminary studies suggest combining it with psychotherapy may be beneficial, clinical antidepressant use rarely includes per- and post-infusion therapy. The psychodysleptic experiences and synaptogenic effects could enhance cognitive behavioral therapy. This article proposes a practical protocol for Ketamine Augmented Psychotherapy (KAP), synthesizing literature and clinical experience. It details four steps: preparation, administration, integration, and prolongation, and discusses limits and prospects for mood disorder management.
Bayesian Brain Theory, rooted in Predictive Processing, provides a mathematical and mechanistic account of how the mind works. It posits that the brain encodes probabilistic beliefs to generate predictions about sensory input, then updates those beliefs using prediction errors. This theory integrates concepts from philosophy of mind with neuroscience data to explain perception, decision-making, learning, action, emotion, and even psychiatric symptoms. The paper introduces the fundamentals of this computational approach, showing how it translates complex cognitive processes into a unified framework.
Philosophy of mind, a rapidly growing field that has merged with cognitive science, addresses foundational questions about mental states, cognition, and their relation to the world. It provides a conceptual framework for generating theories in cognitive science by integrating philosophical concepts with neuroscientific data. However, psychiatry has been slow to adopt insights from philosophy of mind, relying only on fragments emerging from neuroscience. This paper describes the evolution of contemporary philosophy of mind and details its contributions to psychiatry around three central themes: naturalization of mind, mental causality, and subjectivity of mental states. It shows how philosophy of mind links different levels of explanation in psychiatry, from biology to function, neurophysiology to cognition, and matter to mind.