As adolescence can be a stressful developmental stage, the purpose of this study was to determine if a novel mindful self-compassion program would decrease stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety and increase resilience, gratitude, and curiosity/exploration (positive risk-taking), and to ascertain if mindfulness and self-compassion co-varied with these outcomes over time. Forty-seven...
The mechanisms of action of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor antagonist, have not been fully elucidated. This study examined the effects of ketamine on ligand binding to a metabotropic glutamatergic receptor (mGluR5) in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls. Thirteen healthy and 13 MDD nonsmokers...
Citation: McKennon S, Levitt SE and Bulaj G (2017) Commentary: A BreathingBased Meditation Intervention for Patients with Major Depressive Disorder Following Inadequate Response to Antidepressants: A Randomized Pilot Study. Front. Med. 4:37. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2017.00037 Commentary: a Breathing-Based meditation Intervention for Patients with major Depressive Disorder Following Inadequate...
European Journal of PharmacologyApril 5, 2017James Oluwagbamigbe Fajemiroye, Polepally Reddy Prabhakar, Luiz Carlos da Cunha et al.
The increasing cases of depression has made the searches for new drugs and understanding of the underligning neurobiology of this psychiatric disorder a necessity. Here, we modified the structure of salvinorin A (a known halucinogen) and investigated antidepressant-like activity of its four derivatives; 22-methylsulfanylsalvinorin A(SA1), 2-O-cinnamoylsalvinorin B (CSB), 22-azidosalvinorin A...
We present a review and analysis of the ethical considerations in off-label ketamine use for severe, treatment-resistant depression. The analysis of ethical considerations is contextualised in an overview of the evidence for ketamine use in depression, and a review of the drug's safety profile. We find that, based on current evidence, ketamine use for severe, treatment-resistant depression does...
April 3, 2017J. Rycroft-Malone, Felix Gradinger, Heledd Owen Griffiths et al.
Background: Depression affects as many as one in five people in their lifetime and often runs a recurrent lifetime course. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an effective psychosocial approach that aims to help people at risk of depressive relapse to learn skills to stay well. However, there is an ‘implementation cliff’: access to those who could benefit from MBCT is variable and...
Although a number of medications are available for treatment of depressive disorders, one of the major limitations of all present antidepressants is delayed onset of action [1]. In addition, despite recent advances in the pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of major depressive disorder, almost one third of patients fail to respond to any treatments [2]. In recent years, one of the...
April 1, 2017C. Franco, Alberto Amutio, Israel Mañas et al.
This study aimed to analyze the effects of a mindfulness training program on anxiety, worry, and geriatric depression in a sample of older adults. A randomized controlled trial with pretest-posttest measurements was used on an experimental group (n = 42) and a control group (waiting list; n = 45). Participants in the experimental group completed the Short Cognitive Examination, the Penn State...
Introduction: The non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptor antagonist ketamine has been shown to have rapid antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, only a few studies have investigated which clinical characteristics predict a response to ketamine. Objectives: To assess sociodemographic variables and clinical markers that predict response to...
Introduction: Several studies have shown that ketamine, an antagonist of NMDA receptors, represents a promising alternative in the treatment of depression. The therapeutic use of ketamine, commonly used at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg, and in a single application IV has been short and requires monitoring in a hospital setting. IM use has been shown to be effective in treating depression and suicide...
Ketamine is an anesthetic drug that is also used for off-label indications such as the mediation of analgesia and sedation in various settings. It is additionally recognized as an agent with antidepressant potential. For depression, it is most commonly administered as a slow intravenous infusion in subanesthetic doses (usually 0.5 mg/kg). As an antidepressant, is strikingly different from...
The ability of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine to alleviate symptoms in patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is well documented. In this paper, we directly compare in vivo biologic responses in rodents elicited by a recently discovered metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) 2/3 receptor antagonist...
Abuse of more than one psychoactive drug is becoming a global problem. Our experiments were designed to examine the effects of a concomitant administration of 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) and mephedrone on depression- and anxiety-like behaviors and cognitive processes in Swiss mice. In order to investigate the drug interactions the forced swimming test (FST) - an animal model of...
ObjectiveThe main objective of the present study is to investigate effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction in anxiety and depression in patients with multiple sclerosis.MethodsThis study is in kind of semi-experimental research in form of pretest–posttest pattern with control group. Statistical population of the study consists of all patients with multiple sclerosis referred to Iran...
The accepted paradigms of mainstream neuropsychiatry appear to be incompletely adequate and in various cases offer equivocal analyses. However, a growing number of new approaches are being proposed that suggest the emergence of paradigm shifts in this area. In particular, quantum theories of mind, brain and consciousness seem to offer a profound change to the current approaches. Unfortunately...
The rapidly-acting antidepressant properties of ketamine are a trend topic in psychiatry. Despite its robust effects, these are ephemeral and can lead to certain adverse events. For this reason, there is still a general concern around the off-label use of ketamine in clinical practice settings. Nonetheless, for refractory depression, it should be an indication to consider. We report the case of...
IntroductionTreatment resistant depression (TRD) affecting approximately 10–30% of all depressed patients often remains misdiagnosed and undertreated, leading to a higher risk of relapse and suicide. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and sub-anesthetic ketamine have repeatedly shown to be effective in the TRD population. Administering ketamine as an anesthetic component to augment antidepressant...
MindfulnessMarch 28, 2017Laura Freudenthaler, Josephine D. Turba, U. Tran
In the last decade, clinical research on mindfulness and its positive effects on depression and anxiety have gained increased interest. Emotion regulation mediates the effects of mindfulness on mental health in clinical samples and among meditators. The present study examined whether these associations also generalize to the general population. Multi-group structural equation models tested with...
Mind-body medicine is a system of health practices that includes meditation/relaxation training, guided imagery, hypnosis, biofeedback, yoga, art/music therapy, prayer, t'ai chi, and psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Clinical hypnosis is an important mind-body tool that serves as an adjunct to conventional medical care for the adolescent patient. Clinical hypnosis...
Abstract A subset of patients with depression have elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, and some studies demonstrate interaction between inflammatory factors and treatment outcome. However, most studies focus on only a narrow subset of factors in a patient sample. In the current study, we analyzed broad immune profiles in blood from patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) at...