Pharmacological Research
August 26, 2026
Mattia Giovenzana, Noemi Nicosia, Stefano Spinosa et al.
Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) comprise a heterogeneous group of conditions arising from altered brain development and leading to impairments in social, cognitive, emotional, and motor domains. Clinical manifestations are highly variable in severity and symptom profile, reflecting the complex and multifactorial etiology of NDDs. Available treatments are limited to early behavioral...
Pharmacological Research
July 1, 2026
Yang Zhou, Wanchen Sun, Yuxuan Fu et al.
Perioperative depressive symptoms (PDSs) are common among patients who undergo major surgery and can lead to worse clinical outcomes. Esketamine has been reported to alleviate PDSs in patients undergoing certain types of surgery. However, there is a lack of evidence from large-scale, multisurgery studies to support its therapeutic effects in individuals with preexisting moderate-to-severe PDSs....
Pharmacological Research
December 29, 2025
Martina Colognesi, Daniela Gabbia, Anna Signor et al.
3 citations
The therapeutic potential of low, non-psychedelic doses of psilocybin, a fungal tryptamine alkaloid, was investigated in metabolic disorders including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and liver steatosis. Mice fed a high-fat/high-fructose diet received chronic treatment with psilocybin (0.05 mg/kg) for 12 weeks. Body weight, liver histology, insulin sensitivity, and skeletal muscle...
Pharmacological Research
November 22, 2025
Zhuo-Ning Zhang, Xin-Yu Hao, Chen Cai et al.
5 citations
This randomized, double-blind, parallel-group trial evaluated the efficacy of a single intravenous dose of esketamine (0.3mg/kg) administered at anesthesia induction in reducing postoperative depression and anxiety among patients undergoing cardiac valve surgery. A total of 142 patients from three centers were randomly assigned to receive esketamine or saline. The primary outcomes were the...
Pharmacological Research
October 1, 2025
Florian Freudenberg, Christine Reif-Leonhard, Gerard R Dawson et al.
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) represents a major clinical challenge. Affecting about 30 % of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, effective treatments for TRD are urgently needed. While depression research and antidepressant (AD) development have long centred on monoaminergic targets, research over the past 35 years has increasingly explored glutamatergic mechanisms. Here we present...
Pharmacological Research
July 31, 2025
C. Pisanu, R. Carvalho Silva, Mattia Meattini et al.
6 citations
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) remains a challenge in psychiatry, necessitating novel therapeutic strategies beyond traditional monoaminergic antidepressants. Ketamine and its S-enantiomer esketamine have demonstrated rapid and robust antidepressant effects in TRD, probably through mechanisms involving glutamatergic modulation, neuroplasticity, and anti-inflammatory properties. However,...
Pharmacological Research
May 14, 2025
Rebecca Morris, Janet Treasure, Hubertus Himmerich et al.
4 citations
People with eating disorders experience high rates of psychiatric comorbidities, including anxiety disorders such as generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias. Anxiety can influence the prognosis of an eating disorder, by worsening symptoms, and acting as a barrier to treatment. Therefore, targeting treatment efforts towards anxiety may improve eating disorder...
Pharmacological Research
May 1, 2025
Eda Koseli, Belle Buzzi, Torin Honaker et al.
11 citations
Chronic pain is a debilitating disease with current treatments lacking efficacy and safety, therefore discovery of new treatments is crucial. Initial studies suggest that psychedelics may be feasible for targeting pain, however clinical and preclinical controlled studies are necessary to further investigate that possibility. In this study we assessed the effects of two classical psychedelics...
Pharmacological Research
February 1, 2025
Michaela Dvorakova, Ken Mackie, Alex Straiker
2 citations
Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chief psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, acts in the brain primarily via cannabinoid CB1 receptors. These receptors are implicated in several forms of synaptic plasticity - depolarization-induced suppression of excitation (DSE), metabotropic suppression of excitation (MSE), long term depression (LTD) and activation-dependent desensitization. Cultured...
Pharmacological Research
2025
Nicole R Silva, Shokouh Arjmand, Luana B Domingos et al.
6 citations
Ketamine (KET) is recognized as rapid-acting antidepressant, but its mechanisms of action remain elusive. Considering the role of endocannabinoids (eCB) in stress and depression, we investigated if S-KET antidepressant effects involve the regulation of the eCB system using an established rat model of depression based on selective breeding: the Flinders Sensitive Line (FSL) and their controls,...
Pharmacological Research
September 1, 2024
Giorgia Caspani, Simon Ruffell, WaiFung Tsang et al.
13 citations
Psychedelics have emerged as promising therapeutics for several psychiatric disorders. Hypotheses around their mechanisms have revolved around their partial agonism at the serotonin 2 A receptor, leading to enhanced neuroplasticity and brain connectivity changes that underlie positive mindset shifts. However, these accounts fail to recognise that the gut microbiota, acting via the gut-brain...
Pharmacological Research
July 1, 2024
Ke Wang, Xuan Tan, Kai-Mo Ding et al.
5 citations
The rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine depend on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor containing 2B subunit (NR2B), whose function is influenced by its phosphorylated regulation and distribution within and outside synapses. It remains unclear if ketamine's rapid onset of antidepressant effects relies on the dynamic phosphorylated regulation of NR2B within and outside synapses. Here,...
Pharmacological Research
March 1, 2024
Sandra Ledesma-Corvi, Jordi Jornet-Plaza, Laura Gálvez-melero et al.
22 citations
There is an urgent need for novel fast-acting antidepressants for adolescent treatment-resistant depression and/or suicidal risk, since the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that are clinically approved for that age (i.e., fluoxetine or escitalopram) take weeks to work. In this context, one of the main research lines of our group is to characterize at the preclinical level novel...
Pharmacological Research
2024
David B. Yaden, Andrea P Berghella, Peter S. Hendricks et al.
12 citations
Substance use disorders (SUDs) have an enormous impact on public health. With classic psychedelic-assisted therapies showing initial promise in treating multiple SUDs, it is possible that these treatments will become legally available options for patients with SUDs in the future. This article highlights how classic psychedelic-assisted therapies might be integrated into current clinical...
Pharmacological Research
June 26, 2023
Tao Chen, Ling Cheng, Jingwen Ma et al.
48 citations
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic relapsing psychiatric disorder. Conventional antidepressants usually require several weeks of continuous administration to exert clinically significant therapeutic effects, while about two-thirds of the patients are prone to relapse of symptoms or are completely ineffective in antidepressant treatment. The recent success of the N-methyl-D-aspartic...
Pharmacological Research
April 1, 2023
Deborah C. Mash
37 citations
Ibogaine is a powerful psychoactive substance that not only alters perception, mood and affect, but also stops addictive behaviors. Ibogaine has a very long history of ethnobotanical use in low doses to combat fatigue, hunger and thirst and, in high doses as a sacrament in African ritual contexts. In the 1960's, American and European self-help groups provided public testimonials that a single...
Pharmacological Research
May 1, 2022
C. Carvalho, M. Vieira-Coelho
OBJECTIVE Cannabis sativa is a recreational drug commonly consumed in Europe and is getting popularity for both recreational and therapeutic use. In some individuals, the use of cannabis leads to psychotic disorders. This systematic review summarizes the current evidence linking genetic polymorphisms and inter-individual susceptibility to psychosis induced by cannabis. METHOD Studies published...
Pharmacological Research
December 1, 2021
Tibor Stark, Serena di Martino, Filippo Drago et al.
The recent shift in socio-political debates and growing liberalization of Cannabis use across the globe has raised concern regarding its impact on vulnerable populations such as adolescents. Concurrent with declining perception of Cannabis harms, more adolescents are using it daily in several countries and consuming marijuana strains with high content of psychotropic delta...