Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
May 1, 2023
Elena Koning, Elisa Brietzke
13 citations
Eating disorders involve abnormal energy balance, cognitive inflexibility, and emotional distress, with few effective treatments and low long-term remission. Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, shows therapeutic potential for disorders marked by rigid thinking and treatment resistance. This narrative review examines the hypothesis that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy could be an effective adjunctive treatment for eating disorders, drawing on biological plausibility, transdiagnostic evidence, and preliminary results. The authors conclude that current literature does not yet support clinical use, but preliminary evidence warrants more rigorous clinical trials.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
November 11, 2017
Lysa Remy, Juliana Nichterwitz Scherer, Luciano Santos Pinto Guimarães et al.
12 citations
Among young Brazilian adults who used ecstasy or LSD in the previous 90 days, those who identified as gay or bisexual reported a 37% higher prevalence of depression symptoms in the past year compared to their heterosexual peers. The study interviewed 240 participants at bars and electronic music festivals, finding that 28.7% were sexual minorities. The analysis suggests that tailored treatment approaches are needed to address depressive symptoms in this group.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
May 27, 2025
Mariana V F Echegaray, Rodrigo P Mello, Guilherme M. Magnavita et al.
11 citations
Among people with treatment-resistant depression, the intensity of dissociation caused by a single infusion of ketamine or esketamine is linked to greater antidepressant effect one day later, but only when dissociative symptoms are mild to moderate. For every one-point increase on a dissociation scale up to 15 points, depression scores improved by an average of 0.5 points after 24 hours. This relationship was not observed at 72 hours or 7 days after infusion. The study was not originally designed to test this relationship, so confounding factors were not controlled, and the finding should be considered suggestive rather than definitive.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
October 18, 2022
Bheatrix Bienemann, Mariana Ridolfi, Marco Multedo et al.
5 citations
A validated scale for measuring ego dissolution demonstrated strong psychometric properties, though its factor structure may differ from the English version. Because validation is an ongoing process, further studies should compare ego dissolution scores across different substances and regions of the country.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
January 1, 2025
Elena Koning, Marco Solmi, Elisa Brietzke
4 citations
As psychedelics gain acceptance for mental health treatment, corporate funding of clinical trials raises concerns about conflicts of interest and biased reporting. The evidence for safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy remains early. This paper examines safety concerns associated with psychedelics, how financial stakeholders may influence the reporting of safety outcomes, and why balanced science communication is critical for public health and safety during ongoing drug reform.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
April 25, 2026
Alberto Barbieri
Personality disorders involve rigid, maladaptive patterns of thinking and relating to others, which are hard to treat. Schema therapy, which targets early maladaptive schemas formed from unmet emotional needs, shows moderate effectiveness mainly for borderline personality disorder. Psilocybin, a psychedelic, may relax deeply held beliefs and increase cognitive flexibility, according to predictive coding models. This theoretical article proposes combining psilocybin with schema therapy—called Psilocybin-Assisted Schema Therapy (PAST)—to help patients revise maladaptive self-beliefs and improve treatment outcomes for Cluster B and C personality disorders. The framework awaits empirical testing.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
January 1, 2025
Elena Koning, Pedro Starzynski Bacchi, Cristiano Chaves et al.
Both models of psychological intervention in psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAP) may have clinical relevance for treating depression. Future research should standardize reporting of psychological interventions in PAP and use comparative study designs to better evaluate non-specific and specific treatment models, which could inform clinical guidelines.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
February 17, 2023
Nicholas Tze Ping Pang, Vincent Chung Sheng Tio, Amardeep Singh Bhupendar Singh et al.
A single-session online mindfulness intervention reduced anxiety and improved psychological flexibility in Malaysian university students during COVID-19 lockdowns. In a quasi-experimental study with 118 participants, the intervention group showed significant improvements in anxiety and psychological flexibility compared to a control group, but no differences emerged for depression, stress, mindfulness, or fear of COVID-19. The authors argue that such brief online therapy can serve as a practical short-term intervention under financial and time constraints, especially given the high prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders among university students.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
June 1, 2020
A. Foroughi, Kheirollah Sadeghi, A. Parvizifard et al.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) combined with antidepressants reduces depression and ruminative thinking more than antidepressants alone in people with treatment-resistant depression. In a quasi-experimental study, twenty-four patients were randomly assigned to receive either MBCT plus antidepressants or antidepressants only over eight sessions. Those receiving MBCT showed significantly lower depression scores and less rumination, along with improved mindfulness and self-compassion, and these gains were maintained at a one-month follow-up.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
November 13, 2017
Michele F. Rodrigues, Antonio E Nardi, Michelle Levitan
A review of 16 articles on mindfulness-based therapies for mood and anxiety disorders found that mindfulness is an effective treatment strategy. The reviewed studies included mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and approaches addressing fear of negative appraisal and emotional regulation. Mindfulness proved effective across varied therapy formats, including virtual modalities. The field continues to expand its use of mindfulness in scientific models.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
May 11, 2016
Elie Cheniaux, Carlos Eduardo de Sousa Lyra
The paper reviews how major monist and dualist philosophies of mind approach the mind-body problem and evaluates their compatibility with a closer dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Interactionism, psychophysical parallelism, epiphenomenalism, analytical behaviorism, eliminative materialism, reductive materialism, and functionalism are each incompatible with such a dialogue—either because they ignore current brain knowledge, dismiss subjective experience, or treat the mind as a mere byproduct. Only emergentism, which holds that mental states depend on brain states yet possess properties beyond neurobiology, is compatible with a closer dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience.
Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
January 1, 2013
Camilla C Braghetta, Glícia P Santana, Quirino Cordeiro et al.
A near-death experience followed by religious conversion positively affected the mental health of a former prisoner. The individual's experience scored above 7 on the Greyson scale, a measure of near-death experience depth. Such profound psychological events can occur in situations of extreme physical or emotional distress, regardless of cultural or religious background. The case suggests that studying near-death experiences may help understand coping mechanisms and moral or ethical transformations in affected individuals.