Frontiers in PsychiatryDecember 11, 2025Sima Rafiei, Kristof Santa, Nicola Honey et al.3 citations
Introduction: , a six-session VR mindfulness programme designed for young people, delivered in real-world school and community environments. Methods: Using an exploratory pre-post mixed-methods design, data were collected from 53 participants across schools, community organisations, and youth mental health services. Recruitment was facilitator-led and internal to each site. Quantitative data...
Introduction The subjective effects of psilocybin on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are under-explored. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative study of participant experiences from the first randomized placebo-controlled trial of single-dose psilocybin combined with unstructured and non-directive support for individuals with treatment-refractory OCD. Our research explored how participants...
Background: People with a history of psychotic disorders are excluded from contemporary trials of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Although survey studies have explored the impact of naturalistic psychedelic use on people with a history of psychotic disorders, a qualitative study has yet to examine the subjective effects of psychedelic use in this population during both the acute effects and...
Ketamine may be a viable treatment option for patients with treatment-resistant post-stroke depression. Further research is warranted to better understand the efficacy and safety of ketamine in this specific patient population.
This article presents an expansive commentary on Rutledge's (2025) mixed-methods investigation into the role of faith practices in the psychological well-being of displaced Muslim women in northern Iraq. Rutledge's study makes an important contribution by demonstrating that religious devotion-particularly daily prayer, Qur'an recitation, and fasting-serves as a primary channel through which...
Introduction: This study investigates the mechanisms by which digital mindfulness training promotes meaning in life among social workers and explores individual heterogeneity in this process. Methods: A parallel mediation model was used to test the pathways from digital mindfulness training to meaning in life. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was employed to identify distinct subgroups among the...
Aims: To examine associations between psychedelic use and adverse health outcomes, including overdose, relapse, mental health crises, and hospitalizations, among individuals with substance use disorders (SUD), and to compare these outcomes across different treatment modalities including anesthetics and outpatient SUD services. Design: Retrospective cohort study using propensity score-weighted...
The contemporary debate on selfhood in philosophy, psychiatry, and cognitive science unfolds most often between two opposing tendencies: reductionism, seeking to identify a fundamental and minimal core of selfhood, and eliminativism, denying the existence of the self. Shaun Gallagher's Pattern Theory of the Self (PTS) has emerged as a promising alternative approach. By defining the self as a...
The purpose of the article: In recent years, a renewed interest has emerged in investigating the use of MDMA in the treatment of mental disorders. However, knowledge about the characteristics of recreational use of MDMA, its contexts and effects are limited. Methods: We recruited adult Norwegian participants aged 18 to 65 who reported having had a memorable experience after using MDMA. They...
Disturbances regarding the lifeworlds of patients with mental disorders are recurrently mentioned in psychiatric literature, but the concept often remains poorly defined and unclear. The present article takes the lifeworld in schizophrenia as an example to elucidate this concept. First, the concept "lifeworld" is traced back to its philosophical roots. The classical phenomenology particularly...
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted mental health worldwide, particularly among college students. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of regular meditation practice on stress and well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown in college students from Delhi, India. Methods: Data were collected from April 22 to June 3, 2020. Participants included college students aged 18-26,...
RTT-KaT offers a structured, scalable, evidence-informed, and culturally responsive model that bridges clinical safety with both Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. A longitudinal follow-up study is currently underway to evaluate long-term impact and guide future implementations.
In recent years, ketamine therapy has become increasingly entangled with psychedelic culture, leading to widespread misinterpretation of its therapeutic mechanism. This manuscript challenges the prevailing narrative that positions ketamine as a consciousness-expanding agent or psychotherapy enhancer, highlighting the discord between this view and ketamine's well-established neurobiological...
3,4-methelenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) can be effective in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in controlled trials, potentially secondary to MDMA’s effects on neural circuits implicated in fear and reward. Although anxiety, stress, and fear-based disorders involve maladaptation of the neural circuits processing fear, threat, and reward, no studies have tested MDMA’s therapeutic...
Introduction: This is the first randomized controlled trial to use both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the effects of a combined sensory intervention that included mindfulness, music, and a light-occluding eye mask during antidepressant-dose ketamine treatment for depression. Methods: Forty-three participants with unipolar depressive disorder enrolled in the study; 22...
The resurgence of interest in psychedelic compounds as potential treatments for psychiatric disorders represents a paradigm shift in mental health care. Psychedelics exert their effects through serotonergic modulation, particularly via 5-HT2A receptor activation, inducing profound alterations in consciousness and catalyzing neuroplasticity. While their neurobiological effects are...
I present a provisional model and promising evidence, pending robust longitudinal validation, for the possibility of prodromal dreams: dreams that predict onset of illness before overt symptoms appear. Interoceptive signals are compressed and summated/integrated within brain networks that are most highly active during REM sleep. If there is a bodily problem an error signal is generated and the...
In recent years, renewed attention has been given to the centrality of set and setting inpsychedelic-assisted therapy. The Reporting of Setting in Psychedelic Clinical Trials (ReSPCT)guidelines reflect an evolving consensus: therapeutic outcomes are not solely pharmacologicallydetermined but are heavily shaped by both the environment and the psychological state of theparticipant...
This paper introduces Active Intersubjective Inference (AISI), a novel framework that integrates psychodynamic theory with predictive processing to explain self-identity construction and psychopathology. AISI posits that the self emerges from recursive inferences about how others perceive us (second-order self), interacting bidirectionally with interoceptive processes. We map psychodynamic...
Introduction: Ayahuasca is a psychedelic compound of N, N, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmala alkaloids used for spiritual and medicinal applications in traditional settings. A range of potential psychotherapeutic mechanisms have been proposed for ayahuasca. These are thought to contribute to improvements in various psychiatric conditions including mood disorders and substance dependence....
Introduction Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, has shown therapeutic potential in treating mental health disorders by, amongst the many effects, promoting neuroplasticity and reorganising functional connectivity across cortical and subcortical networks involved in emotion and cognition. Veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) often experience chronic neurological and psychological...
Frontiers in PsychiatryAugust 4, 2025Fernando Mora, J. Ramos-Quiroga, Enrique Baca-García et al.5 citations
Introduction Depression is a highly prevalent disease that severely impacts the life of patients. Inadequate response to at least two antidepressants despite adequacy of treatment and adherence is known as treatment-resistant depression (TRD), which entails a higher social and economic burden than non-resistant major depression. The lack of consensus on the definition of TRD and other aspects...
Frontiers in PsychiatryAugust 4, 2025Wierzbicka Małgorzata, Renata Kopczyk, Alexander L. Gerlach et al.1 citation
Depression prevalence is markedly elevated in oncological patients, particularly among head and neck cancer (HNC) cohorts, who face twice the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to other cancer populations. MDD in this context independently predicts poorer clinical outcomes and increased morbidity. HNC management often involves acute surgical interventions with disfiguring...
Frontiers in PsychiatryJuly 22, 2025Jagadeesh Sridhara Rao, María Alejandra Tangarife, Diego A. Rodríguez‐Soacha et al.
Psychosis is a core issue in Schizophrenia (SZ), whereas in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the prevalence of psychosis, particularly hallucinations and delusions, is approximately 40 to 60% (1). The onset of psychosis varies in SZ and AD but shares similar structural, neurochemical changes, and genetic associations (2). Radiological and pathological studies reveal a common pattern of limbic system...