Mental Health Clinician
February 1, 2026
Parna Haghparast, Busuyi Olotu, Carol Yuan
MDD can affect anyone regardless of age, and it often starts during late teens or early adulthood. Although some patients with MDD have an adequate response to medications, only approximately 50% respond to the first treatment, and approximately 30% do not achieve remission despite multiple interventions. Several strategies exist for treating patients who have failed multiple first-line agents,...
Mental Health Clinician
July 1, 2021
Courtney Skriptshak, Ashley Reich
11 citations
Abstract Over the past few years, intranasal esketamine has been FDA-approved for treatment-resistant depression as well as MDD with suicidal ideation. In the clinical trials leading to the recent FDA approvals, subjects with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder were excluded from participation in the trial. The manufacturer of intranasal esketamine states that it “has not been studied, and is not...
Mental Health Clinician
May 1, 2021
Madison N. Irwin, Amy VandenBerg
AbstractIntroductionMDD represents a significant burden worldwide, and while a number of approved treatments exist, there are high rates of treatment resistance and refractoriness. Ketamine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, is a novel, rapid-acting antidepressant, however the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of ketamine are not well understood and many other mechanisms...
Mental Health Clinician
March 1, 2019
Jill L Nofziger, Chris Paxos, Jessica Emshoff et al.
Dextromethorphan (DXM), an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, may have ketamine-like antidepressant effects. Dextromethorphan is extensively metabolized via cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6, and its half-life in extensive metabolizers is 2 to 4 hours. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of DXM in combination with a moderate-to-strong CYP2D6 inhibitor antidepressant on...
Mental Health Clinician
2017
Jeremy Daniel, Margaret Haberman
78 citations
Abstract Psilocybin, a classic hallucinogen, is a chemical produced by more than 100 species of mushrooms worldwide. It has high affinity for several serotonin receptors, including 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, and 5-HT2C, located in numerous areas of the brain, including the cerebral cortex and thalamus. With legislation introduced in 1992, more work is being done to further understand the implications of...
Mental Health Clinician
2017
Benjamin Malcolm, Kelly C. Lee
26 citations
Abstract Ayahuasca is a traditional psychoactive sacrament that's been used in Amazonian shamanic rituals for hundreds of years. Ayahuasca is notorious for its psychedelic properties produced from the combination of monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) found in the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and N-N-dimethyltryptamine from Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana. Recently, ritual use of...
Mental Health Clinician
January 2017
Sarah E Grady, Travis A Marsh, Allison Tenhouse et al.
Over the past decade, ketamine has been studied for major depressive disorder and bipolar depression. Ketamine is believed to exert its antidepressant properties through N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonism. Study authors completed a literature review of seven randomized controlled trials of ketamine usage in major depressive disorder and bipolar depression. Ketamine demonstrated a...
Mental Health Clinician
September 1, 2014
Ruki Wijesinghe
Despite new insights and evidence-based treatment options for clinical depression in the recent years, the current choices of safe and effective therapies are still inadequate to sustain a long-term response in the depressed patient. Many do not improve, improve partially or are classified as ‘treatment resistant’ with poor compliance and marked functional impairment. The aim of this article is...