Ketamine has emerged as a promising intervention for treatment-resistant mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. With rising global mental health burdens and the limitations of existing pharmacological treatments, ketamine's novel mechanism of action provides a potential alternative for individuals who have not responded to traditional therapies....
MDMA therapy for PTSD. Those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have a new treatment option—psychedelic therapy. In a confirmatory randomized controlled trial with 104 participants, researchers found that 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted therapy reduced symptoms and functional impairment in people with moderate to severe PTSD. Their findings add to a...
Auvelity, an extended-release fixed combination of dextromethorphan and bupropion, is approved for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adults.Like all antidepressants, dextromethorphan-bupropion carries a boxed warning that it may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in pediatric and young adult patients. Seizures can also occur and are more likely at higher doses.The...
According to this study: Mindfulness-based stress reduction is well tolerated and has comparable effectiveness to a first-line medication for people who have anxiety disorders.At least one study-related adverse event occurred in 78.6% of patients in the escitalopram group and in 15.4% of those in the mindfulness-based stress reduction group.
Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives over more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula...
Figure: This month's cover features a colorized magnetic resonance imaging scan of a human brain—a nod to Penn and colleagues' article “Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy,” which presents an overview of a growing field that nurses are positioned to be part of. Photo by Daisy Daisy / Shutterstock.This month's cover features a colorized magnetic resonance imaging scan of a human brain—a nod to Penn and...
Psychedelics are a class of psychoactive substances that were studied extensively between 1943 and 1970 as potential therapies for treating a host of mental health disorders, including addiction. Despite promising early results, U.S. psychedelic research was halted in the early 1970s with the enactment of the Controlled Substances Act. As the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy develops,...
r. Graham is dying of cancer. He slips in and out of consciousness. Yet the words his nurse bends to hear are clear and firm: I spoke with my wife today, he says with a smile. She's waiting for me. His wife died two years ago. People who are dying or who have returned from clinical death tell amazingly similar stories about the experience. They speak, for example, of their spirit leaving their...