Psychopharmacology
November 28, 2025
Elifrances Galdino de Oliveira, Mayara Victória De Souza Barbosa, Diógenes Afonso De Lima et al.
Relevant to the study of neurodevelopmental disorders, maternal immune activation (MIA) models reproduce the high incidence of anxiety disorders and molecular alterations in the cerebellum reported in patients with schizophrenia and autism. In parallel, ketamine, a fast-acting antidepressant, has shown beneficial effects in psychiatric disorders with immune-related components. To investigate...
Psychopharmacology
November 15, 2025
Michael H. Baumann, Grant C. Glatfelter, Sara E Walton et al.
1 citation
There is growing interest in the therapeutic utility of psychedelic compounds that act as serotonin-2 A receptor (5-HT2A) agonists. N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a 5-HT2A agonist that produces intense and short-lived psychedelic subjective effects, but the compound requires non-oral routes of administration that bypass gastrointestinal metabolism. Intranasal (IN) delivery of DMT represents...
Psychopharmacology
November 15, 2025
Elisabetta Ciccocioppo, Sara Massetti, Marcus W. Meinhardt et al.
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) represents a significant medical challenge, with available therapeutic approaches having limited efficacy. Emerging data suggest that psychedelic compounds could represent an alternative treatment for AUD. Among this class of molecules, ketamine, a dissociative psychedelic, shows promising properties. It reduces alcohol drinking in rodents and in humans it is used to...
Psychopharmacology
November 10, 2025
Yair Dor-Ziderman, Jonathan David, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana
These findings provide preliminary evidence that while ayahuasca may alter how humans interact with the theme of death on conceptual and affective levels of cognitive processing, on automatic, perceptual unconscious levels of self-specific processing, death-denial processes appear to remain intact.
Psychopharmacology
November 5, 2025
Milad Soltanzadeh, Wang Zheng, Shona G. Allohverdi et al.
1 citation
RationaleKetamine and psilocybin have demonstrated therapeutic potential for mental disorders, including major depressive disorder, yet they engage distinct mechanisms of action. Ketamine, a dissociative hallucinogen, acts by blocking N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR), whereas psilocybin primarily targets serotonin receptors. These divergent mechanisms are reflected in their...
Psychopharmacology
November 1, 2025
Marta De Felice, Hanna J Szkudlarek, Matthew J Jones et al.
RATIONALE: Chronic cannabis during adolescence is associated with long-lasting pathological outcomes, and these effects can be remarkably different between the sexes. Preclinical studies in rodents demonstrated that sustained exposure to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), induces sex-specific pathophysiological outcomes. Thus, while males exhibit higher vulnerability to schizophrenia-like...
Psychopharmacology
October 31, 2025
Vítor Bruno, Lídia Emmanuela Wiazowski Spelta, Matheus Lujan Pereira et al.
Ayahuasca is a brew containing the psychedelic compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and β-carbolines, traditionally consumed in indigenous rituals. Recent studies suggest its potential to reduce depression and anxiety and as an alternative for treating ethanol and tobacco use disorders. However, research on its impact on cocaine use disorder remains limited. To analyze the rewarding effects of...
Psychopharmacology
October 27, 2025
David A Bender, Sandeep M. Nayak, Joshua S. Siegel et al.
Psychedelic treatments are considered to involve unique treatment challenges relative to other psychiatric interventions, though these are typically not explored in detail within clinical trial reports. To determine the types of challenges that providers encounter while administering psychedelic drugs in research settings and to assess provider opinions on safeguards that may be pursued to...
Psychopharmacology
October 27, 2025
Nina Gregoire, Ethan Klukas, Kimberley Kaseweter et al.
Ketamine-assisted therapy is emerging as a fast-acting intervention for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. However, individual response to treatment varies, and little is known about how personality traits and trauma history influence outcomes. This study investigated whether distinct personality profiles emerge in a real-world sample of patients undergoing ketamine therapy and...
Psychopharmacology
October 20, 2025
Alicja Anna Binkowska, Anna Kaszyńska, Maciej Kamiński et al.
Cannabis is often consumed in polysubstance contexts, yet research comparing its isolated use to polydrug use is limited. Such comparisons are essential for understanding substance-specific versus interactive effects on brain activity. This study investigates how cannabis-only and polydrug use relate to alterations in resting-state EEG functional connectivity, using the Directed Transfer...
Psychopharmacology
October 11, 2025
Michelle St Pierre, Elena Argento, Jordyn Cates et al.
Repeated self-administration of small doses of psychedelics, known as microdosing, has been associated with perceived improvements in psychological functioning. However, few studies have examined effects at the daily level. Drawing on data from a naturalistic, prospective, international survey of adults who microdose (N = 1435), we assessed self-reported within-person changes between...
Psychopharmacology
October 2025
Tanya Capolicchio, Giovanni Hernandez, Sammy Shun Wai Shi et al.
The increasing exposure to delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in youth sparks concerns about disruption of ongoing neurodevelopment. During adolescence, dopamine axons continue to grow from the striatum to the prefrontal cortex, promoting the refinement of inhibitory control. This process is coordinated by the Netrin-1 receptor, DCC, which is regulated by microRNA miR-218. In addition,...
Psychopharmacology
August 11, 2025
Jussi Jylkkä, Aila Mustamo
1 citation
RATIONALE: Anecdotal evidence suggests that psychedelic researchers often have personal experiences with psychedelic substances. While such experiences may benefit research, concerns have been raised about potential biases and "excessive enthusiasm." However, the prevalence of personal experiences, their perceived relevance, and their association with opinions about psychedelics remain...
Psychopharmacology
August 1, 2025
Leah M Salinsky, Christina R Merritt, Erik J. Garcia et al.
8 citations
Overdose fatalities involving cocaine continue to rise with over 5.3 million cocaine users reported in the United States in 2022. The abuse liability of cocaine is reliant upon inhibition of dopamine (DA) reuptake and consequent increase in DA efflux in meso-corticolimbic circuitry that controls reward and motivation. Cocaine also increases serotonin (5-HT) efflux which is integral in cocaine...
Psychopharmacology
July 1, 2025
Otto Simonsson, Simon B. Goldberg, Richard Chambers et al.
33 citations
Research on psychedelics has recently shown promising results in the treatment of various psychiatric disorders, but relatively little remains known about the psychiatric risks associated with naturalistic use of psychedelics. The objective of the current study was to investigate associations between naturalistic psychedelic use and psychiatric risks. Using a sample representative of the US...
Psychopharmacology
July 1, 2025
Raly James Perez Custodio, Darlene Mae Ortiz, Hyun Jun Lee et al.
8 citations
Serotonergic psychedelics exert their effects via their high affinity for serotonin (5-HT) receptors, particularly through activating 5-HT2A receptors (5-HT2AR), employing the frontal cortex-dependent head-twitch response (HTR). Although universally believed to be so, studies have not yet fully ascertained whether 5-HT2AR activation is the sole initiator of these psychedelic effects. This is...
Psychopharmacology
June 1, 2025
Nathan J Wellington, Ana P. Bouças, Jim Lagopoulos et al.
16 citations
Existing studies predominantly focus on the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms underlying Ketamine's acute treatment effects on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This emphasis has largely overlooked its sustained therapeutic effects, which hold significant potential for the development of targeted interventions. This systematic review examines the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic...
Psychopharmacology
June 1, 2025
Parsa Yousefi, Morten P. Lietz, Fiachra O'Higgins et al.
7 citations
Psilocybin shows promise for treating neuropsychiatric disorders. However, insight into its acute effects on cognition is lacking. Given the significant role of executive functions in daily life and treatment efficacy, it is crucial to evaluate how psilocybin influences these cognitive domains. This meta-analysis aims to quantify the acute effects of psilocybin on executive functions and...
Psychopharmacology
June 1, 2025
Bahar Yuksel, Zeynep Sen, Gunes Unal
2 citations
Ketamine, a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, produces antidepressant effects at subanesthetic doses. The therapeutic effect, however, is often accompanied by cognitive side effects, including memory impairments. Yet, the specific effects of ketamine on different processes of implicit and explicit memory remain to be elucidated. We examined the effect of an antidepressant dose of...
Psychopharmacology
June 1, 2025
Carmen Abate, Richard Young, Małgorzata Dukat et al.
2 citations
Rationale α-ET (α-ethyltryptamine), a homolog of the classical hallucinogen α-methyltryptamine, was once prescribed clinically as an antidepressant. Classical psychedelic drugs are currently of interest as potential pharmacotherapy for psychiatric disorders. Objectives Drug discrimination was used to (a) determine if α-ET-like stimulus effects could be engendered by the prototypical...
Psychopharmacology
May 17, 2025
Shelby A. McGriff, Jacquelin C Hecker, Alexander D. Maitland et al.
12 citations
The head twitch response (HTR) is a spontaneously occurring behavior in mice that is increased in frequency by serotonergic psychedelics. The mouse HTR is often used as a proxy for psychedelic-like drug effects, but limited information is available about sex differences in HTRs evoked by various classes of psychedelics (i.e., phenethylamines, lysergamides, tryptamines). To examine potential sex...
Psychopharmacology
May 8, 2025
Agnieszka Pałucha-Poniewiera, Anna Rafało-Ulińska, Agata Faron-Górecka et al.
1 citation
(S)-Ketamine, which is used to treat depression, has significant undesirable effects and has potential for abuse. A safe alternative to (S)-ketamine is (R)-ketamine. The relationship between (R)-ketamine and the mGlu5 receptor is unknown, although screening tests indicate the possibility of potentiation of the antidepressant effect of (R)-ketamine by the mGlu5 receptor negative allosteric...
Psychopharmacology
April 30, 2025
Johannes G. Ramaekers, Johannes T. Reckweg, Natasha L. Mason et al.
4 citations
3-Methylmethcathinone (3-MMC) is a synthetic cathinone that has been scheduled in many jurisdictions after it appeared on the consumer market as a designer drug or "legal high". At present, there are no medical applications for synthetic cathinones, but in the past cathinone and other compounds that are structurally related to amphetamine have been evaluated and recognized for their intrinsic...
Psychopharmacology
April 23, 2025
Nicholas C. Borgogna, Tyler Owen, Dan Petrovitch et al.
8 citations
Abstract Rationale Psilocybin is a potentially paradigm-shifting depression intervention. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of psilocybin-for-depression randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Objectives Systematically assess harm reporting, risk of bias, action mechanism specification, and incremental therapeutic effect sizes in the psilocybin-for-depression RCT literature....
Psychopharmacology
April 23, 2025
Jonathan David, Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Yair Dor-Ziderman
2 citations
The human psyche's interaction with death fundamentally shapes cognition, emotions, and behavior in both individuals and society. Death-related psychological phenomena have been shown to be influenced by psychedelic interventions. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive assessment of death-related processes in non-clinical settings, the mechanisms underlying long-term changes, and...