Psychoactive substances such as the ring substituted phenylethylamine 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; “ecstasy”) are widely used in recreational settings. Additionally, recent research highlights substance-assisted psychotherapy as potential new effective treatment for various psychiatric disorders, e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MDMA releases and inhibits the uptake of...
My PhD thesis consisted of two different scientific parts, each supervised by one of my advisors, Prof. Dr. med. Matthias Liechti and Prof. Dr. sc. nat. Katharina Rentsch. One part was to develop liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) methods to measure d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and its main metabolites in plasma, serum, and urine samples. We established the...
This PhD work consists of an in vitro and in vivo part. In the in vivo part, we investigated the role of dopamine in the acute clinical effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “ecstasy”) in healthy human subjects. The role of dopamine in the addictive effects of drug of abuse is well established, but whether it contributes to the acute psychotropic effects of MDMA is unclear. \nIn...
This thesis deals with the electrophysiological correlates of sleep prior to dream recall and the age-related effects on dream processing. The dual NREM/REM sleep cycle and the circadian modulation of REM sleep sum to generate dream processing. However, little is known about the age-related effects on dream recall during both NREM and REM sleep, which comprises the first aim of this thesis. To...