Biological Psychiatry
2018
Chun Yang, Q. Ren, Y. Qu et al.
249 citations
BACKGROUND The role of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in the antidepressant effects of ketamine is controversial. In addition to mTOR, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) is a key signaling molecule in prominent pathways that regulate protein synthesis. (R)-Ketamine has a greater potency and longer-lasting antidepressant effects than (S)-ketamine. Here we...
Biological Psychiatry
September 1, 2017
Wallace C. Duncan, Elizabeth E. Slonena, Nadia S. Hejazi et al.
The rapid clinical antidepressant effects of the glutamatergic modulator ketamine may be due to its ability to restore synaptic plasticity and related effects on sleep-wake and circadian systems. Preclinical studies indicate that ketamine alters expression of circadian clock-associated molecules, and clinical studies of ketamine on plasticity-related biomarkers further suggest an association...
Biological Psychiatry
July 1, 2016
J David Creswell, Adrienne A. Taren, Emily K. Lindsay et al.
Mindfulness meditation training interventions have been shown to improve markers of health, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not known. Building on initial cross-sectional research showing that mindfulness meditation may increase default mode network (DMN) resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with regions important in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal...
Biological Psychiatry
May 12, 2016
Marc S. Lener, Mark J. Niciu, E. Ballard et al.
In patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD), abnormalities in excitatory and/or inhibitory neurotransmission and neuronal plasticity may lead to aberrant functional connectivity patterns within large brain networks. Network dysfunction in association with altered brain levels of glutamate (Glu) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) have been identified in both animal...
Biological Psychiatry
May 1, 2016
D. M. Katz, F. Menniti, R. J. Mather
In 2007, Adrian Bird and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh published a groundbreaking study demonstrating that Rett syndrome (RTT), a severe genetic neurodevelopmental disorder, is reversible in mouse models of the disease (1). Using Cre-Lox technology, the Bird group engineered a mouse in which the disease-causing gene, Mecp2, could be reversibly inactivated. Animals born with the...
Biological Psychiatry
April 1, 2016
Mohamed Sherif, Rajiv Radhakrishnan, Deepak Cyril D'Souza et al.
127 citations
Some of the most compelling evidence supporting an association between cannabinoid agonists and psychosis comes from controlled laboratory studies in humans. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover laboratory studies demonstrate that cannabinoid agonists, including phytocannabinoids and synthetic cannabinoids, produce a wide range of positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms...
Biological Psychiatry
April 1, 2016
S. H. Gage, M. Hickman, Stanley Zammit
Associations between cannabis use and psychotic outcomes are consistently reported, but establishing causality from observational designs can be problematic. We review the evidence from longitudinal studies that have examined this relationship and discuss the epidemiologic evidence for and against interpreting the findings as causal. We also review the evidence identifying groups at...
Biological Psychiatry
April 1, 2016
Hui-Chen Lu, Ken Mackie
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a widespread neuromodulatory system that plays important roles in central nervous system development, synaptic plasticity, and the response to endogenous and environmental insults. The ECS comprises cannabinoid receptors, endogenous cannabinoids (endocannabinoids), and the enzymes responsible for the synthesis and degradation of the endocannabinoids. The most...
Biological Psychiatry
April 1, 2016
Samantha J Broyd, Hendrika H Van Hell, Camilla Beale et al.
Cannabis use has been associated with impaired cognition during acute intoxication as well as in the unintoxicated state in long-term users. However, the evidence has been mixed and contested, and no systematic reviews of the literature on neuropsychological task-based measures of cognition have been conducted in an attempt to synthesize the findings. We systematically review the empirical...
Biological Psychiatry
April 1, 2016
David W Volk, David A Lewis
Cannabis use has been reported to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and to worsen symptoms of the illness. Both of these outcomes might be attributable to the disruption by cannabis of the endogenous cannabinoid system's spatiotemporal regulation of the inhibitory circuitry in the prefrontal cortex that is essential for core cognitive processes, such as working memory, which are...
Biological Psychiatry
November 4, 2015
Jaskaran Singh, Maggie Fedgchin, Ella Daly et al.
466 citations
BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety and to explore the dose response of esketamine intravenous (IV) infusion in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). METHODS: This multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in 30 patients with TRD. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1:1 to receive an IV infusion of .20 mg/kg or .40 mg/kg...
Biological Psychiatry
July 1, 2015
Carlos A. Zarate, Rodrigo Machado‐Vieira
Studies that evaluate agents with potentially rapid antidepres-sant effects are critical to developing new, improved treat-ments for major mood disorders. In particular, such studiesmay offer key insights into the mechanism of action of rapid-acting antidepressants as well as the neurobiology of mooddisorders (1). In their excellent article published in this issue ofBiological Psychiatry,...
Biological Psychiatry
July 1, 2015
Peter Nagele, Andreas Duma, Michael Kopec et al.
N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists, such as ketamine, have rapid antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). We hypothesized that nitrous oxide, an inhalational general anesthetic and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, may also be a rapidly acting treatment for TRD. In this blinded, placebo-controlled crossover trial, 20 patients with TRD were...
Biological Psychiatry
May 4, 2015
Rebecca A Brachman, J. Mcgowan, Jennifer N. Perusini et al.
Background Stress exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for psychiatric illnesses like Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, not all individuals exposed to stress develop affective disorders. Stress resilience, the ability to experience stress without developing persistent psychopathology, varies from individual to individual. Enhancing...
Biological Psychiatry
November 29, 2014
Yasmin Schmid, Florian Enzler, Peter Gasser et al.
425 citations
BackgroundAfter no research in humans for >40 years, there is renewed interest in using lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in clinical psychiatric research and practice. There are no modern studies on the subjective and autonomic effects of LSD, and its endocrine effects are unknown. In animals, LSD disrupts prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response, and patients with...
Biological Psychiatry
April 26, 2014
Rainer Kraehenmann, Katrin H. Preller, Milan Scheidegger et al.
325 citations
BackgroundThe amygdala is a key structure in serotonergic emotion-processing circuits. In healthy volunteers, acute administration of the serotonin 1A/2A/2C receptor agonist psilocybin reduces neural responses to negative stimuli and induces mood changes toward positive states. However, it is little-known whether psilocybin reduces amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli and whether any change...
Biological Psychiatry
January 10, 2014
Robin Carhart-Harris, Kevin Murphy, Robert Leech et al.
182 citations
The MTLs appear to be specifically implicated in the mechanism of action of MDMA, but further work is required to elucidate how the drug's characteristic subjective effects arise from its modulation of spontaneous brain activity.
Biological Psychiatry
September 12, 2013
Elias Dakwar, Frances R. Levin, Richard W Foltin et al.
Background: Cocaine dependence involves problematic neuroadaptations that might be responsive to modulation of glutamatergic circuits. This investigation examined the effects of subanesthetic ketamine infusions on motivation for quitting cocaine and on cue-induced craving in cocaine-dependent participants, 24 hours postinfusion. Methods: Eight volunteers with active DSM-IV cocaine dependence...
Biological Psychiatry
June 19, 2013
Eric M Parise, Lyonna F. Alcantara, Brandon L. Warren et al.
Background Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) afflicts up to 10% of adolescents. However, nearly 50% of those afflicted are considered non-responsive to available treatments. Ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist has shown potential as a rapid-acting and long-lasting treatment for MDD in adults. Thus, the effectiveness and functional consequences of ketamine...
Biological Psychiatry
November 15, 2012
Mohini Ranganathan, Ashley Schnakenberg, Patrick D. Skosnik et al.
125 citations
Salvia divinorum (Salvia) is an increasingly popular recreational drug amongst adolescents and young adults. Its primary active ingredient, Salvinorin A (SA)-a highly selective agonist at the κ opiate receptor-is believed to be one of the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogens. However, there is little experimental data on the effects of SA in humans. In a 3-day, double-blind,...
Biological Psychiatry
November 15, 2012
Hilarie C Tomasiewicz, Michelle M Jacobs, Matthew B Wilkinson et al.
Marijuana use by teenagers often predates the use of harder drugs, but the neurobiological underpinnings of such vulnerability are unknown. Animal studies suggest enhanced heroin self-administration (SA) and dysregulation of the endogenous opioid system in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcsh) of adults following adolescent Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure. However, a causal link between...
Biological Psychiatry
June 1, 2012
Handan Gunduz-Bruce, Robert M G Reinhart, Brian J Roach et al.
Auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300 event-related potentials (ERPs) are reduced in schizophrenia patients and healthy volunteers administered the N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor antagonist, ketamine. In rodents, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a stimulator of the cystine-glutamate exchanger, attenuates the cognitive and behavioral effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists. On...
Biological Psychiatry
June 1, 2012
Rong-Jian Liu, Francis S Lee, Xiao-Yuan Li et al.
Knock-in mice with the common human brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism have impaired trafficking of BDNF messenger RNA to dendrites. It was hypothesized, given evidence that local synapse formation is dependent on dendritic translation of BDNF messenger RNA, that loss-of-function Met allele mice would show synaptic deficits both at baseline and in response to...
Biological Psychiatry
May 9, 2012
Michael Kometer, André Schmidt, Rosilla Bachmann et al.
300 citations
BackgroundSerotonin (5-HT) 1A and 2A receptors have been associated with dysfunctional emotional processing biases in mood disorders. These receptors further predominantly mediate the subjective and behavioral effects of psilocybin and might be important for its recently suggested antidepressive effects. However, the effect of psilocybin on emotional processing biases and the specific...
Biological Psychiatry
April 15, 2012
Nina B L Urban, Mark Slifstein, Judy L. Thompson et al.
Low striatal dopamine 2/3 receptor (D(2/3)) availability and low ventrostriatal dopamine (DA) release have been observed in alcoholism and cocaine and heroin dependence. Less is known about the dopaminergic system in cannabis dependence. We assessed D(2/3) availability and DA release in abstinent cannabis users compared with control subjects and explored relationships to cannabis use history...