Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
February 3, 2026
Kaitlin R Mcmanus, Lara A Ray
27.1 million adults in the United States have alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, current medications for AUD have mixed efficacy. As such, a shift in treatment approach and the development of novel pharmacotherapies for AUD is imperative. This review addresses novel insights on treating AUD through precision medicine that identifies subgroups of individuals most responsive to existing single...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
October 3, 2025
Lorena Terene Lopes Guerra, Isabella Caroline Da Silva Dias, Jaime E. C. Hallak et al.
2 citations
Similar to what happens with other psychedelics, there is an ongoing debate on subjective experience contribution to overall therapeutic mechanisms, which can depend on the targeted conditions. There are very few evidences from controlled studies, limiting the conclusions on safety and efficacy. On top of that, ayahuasca highly variable composition posits another challenge, and studies using...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
June 11, 2025
Victor Pablo Acero, Taylor A Flatt, Peter M. Gooch et al.
Psychedelic compounds are emerging treatments for depression, capable of producing rapid and lasting symptom reduction after 1-2 administrations in the context of psychotherapy - a stark contrast to traditional antidepressants. Despite promising outcomes, the mechanisms underlying psychedelics' reported antidepressant effects remain poorly understood and are often framed in fragmented ways....
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
March 1, 2025
Danny Diep, Sara de la Salle, Julien Thibault Lévesque et al.
8 citations
Since its synthesis in 1962, ketamine has been widely used in diverse medical contexts, from anesthesia to treatment-resistant depression. However, interpretations of ketamine's subjective effects remain polarized. Biomedical frameworks typically construe the drug's experiential effects as dissociative or psychotomimetic, while psychedelic paradigms emphasize the potential therapeutic merits of...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
2024
Lucas F Borkel, Jaime Rojas-Hernández, Luis Alberto Henríquez-Hernández et al.
40 citations
In psychedelic therapy, the importance of set and setting is a fundamental but under-researched assumption. The aim of this study is to correlate variables of set (psychedelic use motivation) and setting (psychedelic use location and type of companion) with psychopathology, wellbeing and personality variables. A sample of 1022 participants of the Spanish-speaking population was collected...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
November 2, 2023
Fabrizio Schifano, Alessandro Vento, Norbert Scherbaum et al.
30 citations
Clinicians should be regularly informed about the range of NPS and their medical, psychobiological and psychopathological risks both in the acute and long term. Future research should focus on an integrative model in which pro-drug websites' analyses are combined with advanced research approaches, including computational chemistry studies so that in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies of...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
April 1, 2023
Jeffrey M. Witkin, Lalit K Golani, Jodi L Smith
18 citations
Deficiencies in standard of care antidepressants are driving novel drug discovery. A new age of antidepressant medications has emerged with the introduction of rapid-acting antidepressants with efficacy in treatment-resistant patients. The newly approved medicines and those in clinical development for major depressive disorder (MDD) are documented in this scoping review of newly approved and...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
2023
Luke J. Ney, Wole Akosile, Chris Davey et al.
8 citations
Preclinical and experimental research have provided promising evidence that medicinal cannabis may be efficacious in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, implementation of medicinal cannabis into routine clinical therapies may not be straightforward. In this review, we describe some of the clinical, practical, and safety challenges that must be addressed for...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
July 6, 2021
E. Schenberg
Dear Editors, Unblinding is an important confounding in pharmacological research potentially affecting rigor and objectivity of the scientific data underlying evidence-based medicine. Therefore, I want to commend the work by Muthukumaraswamy et al. [1] reporting on this problem in clinical trials with psychedelics (Ketamine, LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca), which are rapidly becoming a focus of...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
May 26, 2021
Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Anna Forsyth, Thomas Lumley
312 citations
Introduction: There is increasing interest in the potential for psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD and ketamine to treat several mental health disorders, with a growing number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) being conducted to investigate the therapeutic effectiveness of psychedelics.Areas covered: We review previous literature on expectancy effects and blinding in the context of...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
July 10, 2020
Justin P. Reinert, Kayla N. Colunga, Alexandria Etuk et al.
11 citations
Salvia, kratom, and psilocybin mushrooms may not be an initial consideration when healthcare practitioners are triaging an overdose scenario; however, data from around the world demonstrate an increased use of these agents. While not typically fatal, clinicians must be prepared to assess these as a potential etiology of overdoses and provide appropriate supportive care.
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
June 1, 2020
Kyle T. Greenway, Nicolas Garel, Lisa Jerome et al.
87 citations
INTRODUCTION: Combinations of psychotherapy with antidepressants are gold-standard psychiatric treatments. They operate through complex and interactional mechanisms, not unlike the reemergent paradigm of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which promising research suggests may also be highly effective in even challenging populations. AREAS COVERED: We review the therapeutic mechanisms behind...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
August 13, 2018
Rafael G. Dos Santos, José Carlos Bouso, Miguel Ángel Alcázar‐córcoles et al.
231 citations
Mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in the population. Although several pharmacological treatments are available, they are not effective for a significant proportion of patients and are associated with several adverse reactions. Therefore, new treatments should be explored. Recent studies suggest that serotonergic...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
March 17, 2016
Fabrizio Schifano, Gabriele Duccio Papanti, Laura Orsolini et al.
66 citations
There are increasing levels of concern relating to the rapidly evolving novel psychoactive substances/NPS and web markets' scenarios. The paper aims at providing an overview of the clinical pharmacological issues related to some of the most popular NPS categories, e.g. stimulants and hallucinogens. NPS intake is typically associated with the imbalance of a complex range of neurotransmitter...