Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 30, 2021
James B. Close, Julia Bornemann, Maria Piggin et al.
21 citations
Within the context of scientific research, patient and public involvement (PPI) is defined as research performed “with” or “by” patients and members of the public, rather than “to,” “about”, or “for” them. When carried out systematically and thoughtfully, PPI has the potential to strengthen the quality and impact of research by fostering accountability, transparency, and relevance. There exist...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 27, 2021
Jason B. Luoma, M. Kati Lear
11 citations
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent and often debilitating psychiatric disorder that can assume a chronic course even when treated. Despite the identification of evidence-based pharmacological and behavioral treatments for SAD, much room for improved outcomes exists and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been proposed as a promising adjunctive treatment to psychological...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 10, 2021
Cato M. H. de Vos, Natasha L. Mason, Kim P. C. Kuypers
259 citations
Clinical studies suggest the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, including ayahuasca, DMT, psilocybin, and LSD, in stress-related disorders. These substances induce cognitive, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and antiaddictive effects suggested to arise from biological changes similar to conventional antidepressants or the rapid-acting substance ketamine. The proposed route is by inducing brain...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 10, 2021
Tehseen Noorani, Jonny Martell
32 citations
The publication in April 2021 of the Imperial College London Phase II study investigating \nthe efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy vs. escitalopram for depression reported differences \nin the primary outcome measure (the QIDS-SR16) between experimental and control arms as \nstatistically insignificant (1). However, secondary measures of depression, and other relevant \nmeasures (see...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 9, 2021
Marcelo Trombka, Timothy B. Creedon, Marcelo Demarzo et al.
14 citations
Background: Portuguese-speaking immigrants are a growing underserved population in the Unites States who experience high levels of psychological distress and increased vulnerability to mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Current evidence shows that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are effective to promote physical and mental health among educated English speakers;...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 6, 2021
Elena Argento, Devon Christie, Lindsay Mackay et al.
12 citations
The COVID-19 pandemic stands to have impacts on mental health and well-being that will extend beyond its formal resolution. Before COVID-19, mental health disorders were already challenging global healthcare systems, directly accounting for 7.4% of the total burden of disease (1, 2). An estimated 1 billion people worldwide suffer from a mental health disorder, with the two most common...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 11, 2021
Maria Eleni Eleftheriou, Emily M Thomas
37 citations
Mindfulness-based interventions and psychedelic-assisted therapy have been experimentally utilised in recent years as alternative treatments for various psychopathologies with moderate to great success. Both have also demonstrated significant post-acute and long-term decreases in clinical symptoms and enhancements in well-being in healthy participants. These two therapeutic interventions share...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 6, 2021
Juliana Mendes Rocha, Giordano Novak Rossi, Flávia de Lima Osório et al.
37 citations
Rationale: Previous studies with the serotonergic hallucinogens LSD and psilocybin showed that these drugs induced changes in personality traits, such as increases in Openness. However, results are inconsistent, and the effects of ayahuasca on personality were never investigated in a controlled trial. Objectives: To assess the effects of ayahuasca on personality in two randomized,...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 2, 2021
Nicolas Langlitz, Erika Dyck, Milan Scheidegger et al.
35 citations
The revival of psychedelic research coincided and more recently conjoined with psychopharmacological research on how drugs affect moral judgments and behaviors. This article makes the case for a moral psychopharmacology of psychedelics that examines whether psychedelics serve as non-specific amplifiers that enable subjects to (re-)connect with their values, or whether they promote specific...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
July 23, 2021
Qiubi Tang, Shuixian Yang, Cuixian Liu et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been increasingly recognized as effective in different mental illnesses, but these effects are limited in schizophrenia. For patients with schizophrenia, stigma is one of the most negative factors that affects treatment, rehabilitation and social function. This research aimed to determine the effects of MBCT on stigma in patients with...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
July 19, 2021
Rita Kočárová, Jiřı́ Horáček, Robin Carhart-Harris
95 citations
Addressing global mental health is a major 21st-century challenge. Current treatments have recognized limitations; in this context, new ones that are prophylactic and effective across diagnostic boundaries would represent a major advance. The view that there exists a core of transdiagnostic overlap between psychiatric disorders has re-emerged in recent years, and evidence that psychedelic...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
July 5, 2021
Morgan Campbell, Monnica T. Williams
If patients with mental illnesses are to be treated fairly in comparison with other categories of patients, they must be given access to promising experimental therapies, including psychedelics. The right of early access to promising therapies was advanced as an ethical principle by activist Larry Kramer during the AIDS pandemic, and has now largely been adopted by the medical establishment....
Frontiers in Psychiatry
June 29, 2021
Keri Mans, Hannes Kettner, David Erritzøe et al.
65 citations
In the last 15 years, psychedelic substances, such as LSD and psilocybin, have regained legitimacy in clinical research. In the general population as well as across various psychiatric populations, mental well-being has been found to significantly improve after a psychedelic experience. Mental well-being has large socioeconomic relevance, but it is a complex, multifaceted construct. In this...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
June 22, 2021
Sadhna Verma, James Donovan, Hari S. Tunuguntla et al.
Background: Depression, anxiety, and disordered sleep are some common symptoms associated with sub-optimal mental health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health issues have grown increasingly more prevalent in the population. Due to social distancing and other limitations during the pandemic, there is a need for home-based, flexible interventions that can improve mental health. The Yoga of...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
June 16, 2021
Dóra Révész, Genís Ona, Giordano Novak Rossi et al.
42 citations
Background: One of the main public health strategies adopted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic consisted of implementing strict lockdowns to stop the transmission of the virus. Despite being an effective measure, the confinement and the associated social isolation create a stressful, potentially lengthy situations that has been proven to have several psychological consequences. Given...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
June 9, 2021
Simon Ruffell, Nige Netzband, WaiFung Tsang et al.
74 citations
Ayahuasca is a natural psychoactive brew, used in traditional ceremonies in the Amazon basin. Recent research has indicated that ayahuasca is pharmacologically safe and its use may be positively associated with improvements in psychiatric symptoms. The mechanistic effects of ayahuasca are yet to be fully established. In this prospective naturalistic study, 63 self-selected participants took...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
May 28, 2021
V. B. Cavenaghi, Leandro Paulino da Costa, Acioly L T Lacerda et al.
41 citations
Background: Ketamine has been shown to produce a rapid and robust antidepressant effect. Though numerous routes of administration have been studied, subcutaneous (SC) has proven to be a convenient and cost-effective route making its use particularly relevant in developing countries. Here we provide a systematic review covering the use of SC racemic ketamine and esketamine in depression,...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
May 12, 2021
Liguo He, Wei Han, Zhan Shi
This study examines the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) vs. wait list (WL) on the self-reference effect involving negative adjectives in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Eighty-five participants with SAD were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of MBSR or WL and completed an incidental SRE task that assessed treatment-related negative self-representations....
Frontiers in Psychiatry
May 11, 2021
Ridge G. Weston, Paul J. Fitzgerald, Brendon O. Watson
19 citations
The anesthetic drug ketamine has been successfully repurposed as an antidepressant in human subjects. This represents a breakthrough for clinical psychopharmacology, because unlike monoaminergic antidepressants, ketamine has rapid onset, including in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) that is resistant to conventional pharmacotherapy. This rapid therapeutic onset suggests a unique mechanism of...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
April 21, 2021
James Rucker, Allan H. Young
40 citations
Psilocybin has a long history of non-medical use and some seem to infer from this that it has therapeutic utility. Early phase clinical trials with psilocybin are encouraging, but suggest only that larger, multicentre trials are required. These are ongoing but will take many years to complete. Meanwhile, retreat centers offering paid experiences with psilocybin truffles have opened in some...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
March 22, 2021
M. A. Mende, Hendrik Schmidt
Mental health problems remain among the main generators of costs within and beyond the health care system. Psychotherapy, the tool of choice in their treatment, is qualified by social interaction, and cooperation within the therapist-patient-dyad. Research into the factors influencing therapy success to date is neither exhaustive nor conclusive. Among many others, the quality of the...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
February 26, 2021
Marcelo Trombka, Marcelo Demarzo, Daniel Fernando Campos et al.
Background: Police officers' high-stress levels and its deleterious consequences are raising awareness to an epidemic of mental health problems and quality of life (QoL) impairment. There is a growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions are efficacious to promote mental health and well-being among high-stress occupations. Methods: The POLICE study is a multicenter randomized...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
February 9, 2021
Valeria Catalani, Davide Arillotta, John Corkery et al.
38 citations
COVID-19-related disruptions of people and goods' circulation can affect drug markets, especially for new psychoactive substances (NPSs). Drug shortages could cause a change in available NPS, with the introduction of new, unknown, substances. The aims of the current research were to use a web crawler, NPSfinder®, to identify and categorize emerging NPS discussed on a range of drug...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
February 3, 2021
Sara Tai, Elizabeth M. Nielson, Molly Lennard-Jones et al.
87 citations
Introduction: Psychological support throughout psilocybin therapy is mandated by regulators as an essential part of ensuring participants' physical and psychological safety. There is an increased need for specially trained therapists who can provide high-quality care to participants in clinical studies. This paper describes the development and practical implementation of a therapist training...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
January 20, 2021
Conor McDonnell, F. Dunphy-Doherty, J. Rouine et al.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability worldwide. The majority of antidepressant drugs require several weeks or months of treatment to demonstrate efficacy and a subset of patients are resistant to such interventions. Ketamine demonstrates rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects in treatment resistant patients; however, side effects may limit its widespread...