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PeerJ

ISSN 2167-8359

12 papers in the library · 224 citations · publishing 2015-2025

Papers

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Education about pain and experience with cognitive-based interventions do not reduce healthcare professionals' chronic pain.

PeerJ 2025 Asaf Weisman, Tomer Yona, Youssef Masharawi 4 citations

Cognitive-based interventions like pain neuroscience education (PNE), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness meditation are popular for managing chronic pain. Despite their widespread adoption, evidence for their efficacy remains contradictory. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) represent a unique population to evaluate these approaches, as they...

Integrating mindfulness and physical activity: a meta-analysis of mindful movement interventions for symptoms of anxiety and depression among university students.

PeerJ 2025 Xinjian Xu, Borhannudin Bin Abdullah, Shamsulariffin Bin Samsudin et al. 3 citations

University students are increasingly vulnerable to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, which have been associated with academic stress, job market uncertainty, and lifestyle-related factors such as physical inactivity and poor sleep habits. Mindful movement, defined as structured programs integrating mindfulness practice with physical movement, offers a holistic approach to...

Effects of a combined nature-based and audio-based virtual mindfulness intervention on stress and wellbeing of COVID-19 healthcare workers: a randomized controlled trial.

PeerJ 2025 Polycarpe Bagereka, Rezvan Ameli, Ninet Sinaii et al.

The global COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent transition to an endemic phase has highly increased psychosocial distress among healthcare workers. This chronic stress may culminate into burnout, which has been associated with impaired patient care and increased medical errors. Exposure to nature-based programs have been shown to reduce levels of perceived stress and promote well-being....

Effect of oral tryptamines on the gut microbiome of rats—a preliminary study

PeerJ June 3, 2024 Mengyang Xu, Haifei Shi, Andor J. Kiss et al. 5 citations

Background Psilocybin and related tryptamines have come into the spotlight in recent years as potential therapeutics for depression. Research on the mechanisms of these effects has historically focused on the direct effects of these drugs on neural processes. However, in addition to such neural effects, alterations in peripheral physiology may also contribute to their therapeutic effects. In...

Exploring the mediating roles of physical literacy and mindfulness on psychological distress and life satisfaction among college students.

PeerJ 2024 Wencong Kan, Fan Huang, Menglin Xu et al. 12 citations

Psychological distress has been a growing challenge to healthy living worldwide. Special attention has been concentrated on examining the cost of psychological distress on the life satisfaction of college students who are vulnerable groups coping with the challenge. The purpose of this study is to explore the roles of physical literacy (PL) and mindfulness in mediating the impact of...

The complete organellar genomes of the entheogenic plant Psychotria viridis (Rubiaceae), a main component of the ayahuasca brew.

PeerJ 2022 Alessandro M Varani, Saura R Silva, Simone Lopes et al. 7 citations

Psychotria viridis (Rubioideae: Rubiaceae), popularly known as chacrona, is commonly found as a shrub in the Amazon region and is well-known to produce psychoactive compounds, such as the N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Together with the liana Banisteropsis caapi, P. viridis is one of the main components of the Amerindian traditional, entheogenic beverage known as ayahuasca. In this work, we...

Embodied time and the out-of-body experience of the self.

PeerJ 2020 Sylvie Droit-Volet, Sophie Monceau, Michael Dambrun et al. 17 citations

Using an out-of-body paradigm, the present study provided further empirical evidence for the theory of embodied time by suggesting that the body-self plays a key role in time judgments. Looking through virtual reality glasses, the participants saw the arm of a mannequin instead of their own arm. They had to judge the duration of the interval between two (perceived) touches applied to the...

Prevalence of near-death experiences in people with and without REM sleep intrusion.

PeerJ 2019 Daniel Kondziella, Jens P Dreier, Markus Harboe Olsen 34 citations

The origin and prevalence of near-death experiences are unknown. A recent study suggested a link with REM sleep intrusion but was criticized for its selection of control participants. We therefore assessed the association of REM intrusion and near-death experiences with different methods. Using a crowd-sourcing platform, we recruited 1,034 lay people from 35 countries to investigate the...

Migraine aura, a predictor of near-death experiences in a crowdsourced study.

PeerJ 2019 Daniel Kondziella, Markus Harboe Olsen, Coline L. Lemale et al. 17 citations

Near-death experiences (NDE) occur with imminent death and in situations of stress and danger but are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that NDE are associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep intrusion, a feature of narcolepsy. Previous studies further found REM abnormalities and an increased frequency of dream-enacting behavior in migraine patients, as well as an association between...

The ethnobotany of psychoactive plant use: a phylogenetic perspective

PeerJ January 19, 2017 Nashmiah Aid Alrashedy, Jeanmaire Molina 39 citations

Psychoactive plants contain chemicals that presumably evolved as allelochemicals but target certain neuronal receptors when consumed by humans, altering perception, emotion and cognition. These plants have been used since ancient times as medicines and in the context of religious rituals for their various psychoactive effects (e.g., as hallucinogens, stimulants, sedatives). The ubiquity of...

Harmine stimulates proliferation of human neural progenitors

PeerJ December 6, 2016 Vanja Dakic, Renata de Moraes Maciel, Hannah Drummond et al. 86 citations

Harmine is the β -carboline alkaloid with the highest concentration in the psychotropic plant decoction Ayahuasca. In rodents, classical antidepressants reverse the symptoms of depression by stimulating neuronal proliferation. It has been shown that Ayahuasca presents antidepressant effects in patients with depressive disorder. In the present study, we investigated the effects of harmine in...

Personality and intelligence: persistence, not self-directedness, cooperativeness or self-transcendence, is related to twins’ cognitive abilities

PeerJ August 20, 2015 Fariba Mousavi, S. Rózsa, T. Nilsson et al.

Background. A person-centered approach focusing on the interaction of an individual’s temperament-character-life events is essential in the path of individuals’ well-being. In this context, three character traits, Self-directedness (e.g., self-acceptance, self-control, goal-directed behavior), Cooperativeness (e.g., social affiliation, social tolerance, empathy and helpfulness) and...