Drugs
June 4, 2026
Kevin F. Boehnke, Niloufar Pouyan, Jacob S. Aday
Chronic pain is common, costly, and for many, remains inadequately treated by existing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches. In parallel with growing dissatisfaction with conventional therapies, classic serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ayahuasca, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and mescaline, administered alone or within...
Drugs
April 1, 2026
Martha S. Rosenthal
This chapter examines cannabis, tracing its historical role in human history, concluding that it is one of humanity’s earliest cultivated plants. The chapter then looks at its use in medicine and rituals across ancient cultures. Globally, cannabis ranks as the most used illicit drug, with usage patterns influenced by factors such as age, gender, and geography. Legal and cultural perspectives...
Drugs
April 1, 2026
Martha S. Rosenthal
This chapter examines the pharmacology, effects, and history of stimulants, focusing on cocaine, amphetamines, MDMA, and other related substances. Cocaine plays a significant role as a medical marvel and recreational drug, available in forms such as powder and crack, which differ in potency and methods of use. Amphetamines, initially praised for their therapeutic benefits, gain attention for...
Drugs
May 1, 2025
Sharmin Ghaznavi, Sarah G Richter
6 citations
There has been a recent resurgence in research on psychedelics as therapeutic agents for psychiatric conditions. This leading article outlines the studies to date of classic psychedelic treatments for treatment-resistant depression and major depression, including psilocybin, ayahuasca, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and O-methyl-bufotenine (5-Me-O DMT). We discuss the potential of expanding...
Drugs
November 1, 2024
Manoj K. Doss, Annamarie Demarco, Joseph E Dunsmoor et al.
14 citations
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder with defining abnormalities in memory, and psychedelics may be promising candidates for the treatment of PTSD given their effects on multiple memory systems. Most PTSD and psychedelic research has investigated memory with fear conditioning and extinction. While fruitful, conditioning and extinction provide a limited model of the...
Drugs
February 1, 2024
Michael A Norred, Zachary D Zuschlag, Mark B Hamner
11 citations
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder inflicting high degrees of symptomatic and socioeconomic burdens. The development of PTSD results from a cascade of events with contributions from multiple processes and the underlying pathophysiology is complex, involving neurotransmitters, neurocircuitry, and neuroanatomical pathways. Presently, only two medications are US...
Drugs
July 1, 2023
Kamyar Keramatian, Trisha Chakrabarty, Anais DuBow et al.
19 citations
Depression is the most commonly experienced mood state over the life span in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and is the primary driver of functional impairment and suicidality in BD. Despite this, there are few effective treatments for BD depression, with only a handful of atypical anti-psychotics and inconsistent evidence for traditional mood stabilizing agents. There have been few...
Drugs
March 1, 2017
Marc S. Lener, Bashkim Kadriu, Carlos A. Zarate
Clinical and preclinical studies suggest that dysfunction of the glutamatergic system is implicated in mood disorders such as major depressive disorder and bipolar depression. In clinical studies of individuals with major depressive disorder and bipolar depression, rapid reductions in depressive symptoms have been observed in response to subanesthetic-dose ketamine, an agent whose mechanism of...