Background Public and patient expectations of treatment influence health behaviours and decision-making. Aims We aimed to understand how the media has portrayed the therapeutic use of ketamine in psychiatry. Method We systematically searched electronic databases for print and online news articles about ketamine for psychiatric disorders. The top ten UK, USA, Canadian and Australian newspapers...
Causal cognition is a core aspect of how we deal with the world; however, existing psychological theories tend not to target intuitive causal engagement that is done in daily life. To fill this gap, we propose an Ecological-Enactive (E-E) affordance-based account of situated causal engagement, that is, causal judgments and perceptions. We develop this account to improve our understanding of...
Some recent research and commentary have suggested that most or all the effects reported by people who microdose psychedelics may be explained by expectations or placebo effects. Here we step through all the available evidence from dose-controlled studies that have investigated the effects of low doses of LSD and psilocybin. We suggest eight reasons why current claims that microdosing is...
Depression is among the most common mental health disorders worldwide and treatment resistant depression (TRD) represents a major challenge for both patients and clinicians. In recent years ketamine has received attention as an antidepressant agent, demonstrating promising results in TRD in adults. To date, few attempts have been made in treating adolescent TRD with ketamine and none have used...
Individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP) are commonly prescribed long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) for analgesia, placing this population at increased risk for opioid misuse and opioid use disorder. Acceptance of aversive experiences (e.g., chronic pain) and awareness of automatic thoughts and behaviors (i.e., automaticity) are two facets of dispositional mindfulness that may serve as...
British Journal of PharmacologyJune 1, 2023Mydirah Littlepage‐Saunders, Michael J. Hochstein, Doris S. Chang et al.5 citations
Dopamine transmission in the striatum is a critical mediator of the rewarding and reinforcing effects of commonly misused psychoactive drugs. G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that bind a variety of neuromodulators including dopamine, endocannabinoids, acetylcholine and endogenous opioid peptides regulate dopamine release by acting on several components of dopaminergic circuitry. Striatal...
Intravenous ketamine infusions in subanesthetic doses have been shown to rapidly alleviate depressive symptoms. However, the efficacy of ketamine as an anesthetic during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for major depression has not yet been answered by a large randomized control trial (RCT). This scoping review aims to examine the available literature to determine whether the dose of ketamine...
N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist antidepressants have known potential for abuse liability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the abuse liability of D-cycloserine (DCS), using a self-administration paradigm in which DCS was tested for its efficacy in substituting for ketamine in ketamine-dependent rats. A standard intravenous self-administration study was conducted in male...
It is frequently claimed that panpsychism is unable in principle to generate evidence or predictions. After exploring how this impasse owes to panpsychism's commitment to brute physicalism, I argue that organismic panpsychism (OP) can retain this commitment and yet be empirical in principle. I then explore ways in which OP can be defended against a range of objections. These objections...
Background: Emerging literature suggests that classic psychedelics may have efficacy in treating mood and substance use disorders in humans. This has raised questions regarding the primary therapeutic mechanism of these compounds. Here, we hypothesize that the reversal of and resilience against learned helplessness may be an important driver of the therapeutic mechanisms of classic...