PsychopharmacologyFebruary 2018Elena Martín-González, Ángeles Prados-Pardo, Santiago Mora et al.
Clinical studies have shown that some psychoactive recreational drugs have therapeutic applications in anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. However, to date, there are few studies on the therapeutic potential efficacy of recreational drugs in compulsive neuropsychiatric disorders. We explored the therapeutic potential of different psychoactive and psychedelic drugs in a preclinical model of...
Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability globally. Improvements in the efficacy of antidepressant therapy are needed as a high proportion (>40%) of individuals with major depressive disorder fail to respond adequately to current treatments. The non-selective N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor channel blocker, (±)-ketamine, has been reported to produce a rapid and long-lasting...
Psychoactive compounds, N-methyl-5-(2-aminopropyl)benzofuran (5-MAPB) and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine (MDMA), are known to be hepatotoxic in humans and/or experimental animals. As previous studies suggested that these compounds elicited cytotoxicity via mitochondrial dysfunction and/or oxidative stress in rat hepatocytes, the protective effects of fructose and N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC)...
The glutamate hypothesis proposes that N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypofunction underlies cognitive and perhaps other schizophrenic symptoms. The present study used the odor span task to assess the effects of NMDA antagonists on remembering multiple stimuli in rodents. This task uses an incrementing nonmatching-to-sample procedure in which responses to a new olfactory stimulus are...
Difficulties in distinguishing veridical reports of experience from confabulations have implications for theories of consciousness. I develop some of these implications through a consideration of out-of-body experiences (OBEs). Do these variations indicate individual variation in experience or are they post-hoc confabulations, stories told by subjects to themselves in an attempt to make sense...
Despite widespread scientific and popular interest in mindfulness-based interventions, questions regarding the empirical status of these treatments remain. We sought to examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions for clinical populations on disorder-specific symptoms. To address the question of relative efficacy, we coded the strength of the comparison group into five categories: no...
Clinical data with 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients recently stimulated interest on the potential therapeutic use of psychedelics in disorders characterized by maladaptive memories, including substance use disorders (SUD). The rationale for the use of MDMA in PTSD and SUD is being extended to a broader beneficial "psychedelic effect,"...
Recent studies have supported the safety and efficacy of psychedelic therapy for mood disorders and addiction. Music is considered an important component in the treatment model, but little empirical research has been done to examine the magnitude and nature of its therapeutic role. The present study assessed the influence of music on the acute experience and clinical outcomes of psychedelic...
Experiencing poverty during childhood and adolescence may affect brain function. However, income is dynamic, and studies have not addressed whether income change relates to brain function. In the present study, we investigated whether intrinsic functional connectivity of default mode network (DMN) regions was influenced by mean family income and family income change. Parents of 68...
ABSTRACT The incidence of major depression in adolescents, aged between 15 to 18 years, reaches approximately 14%. Usually, this disorder presents a recurrent way, without remission of symptoms even after several pharmacological treatments, persisting through adult life. Due to the relatively low efficacy of commercially available antidepressant, new pharmacological therapies are under...