Current Pain and Headache Reports
April 21, 2026
Navy C Coggins, Hanson A Chokr, Tricia A Meyer et al.
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Ketamine was originally developed as a dissociative anesthetic and has remained a valuable agent in anesthesia related to its ability to preserve airway reflexes and relative hemodynamic stability. Over time, its clinical applications have expanded beyond procedural sedation to include roles in pain management and psychiatry. In pain medicine, the therapeutic rationale is...
Scientific Reports
April 21, 2026
Rong Ding, Daojie Wang, Guoxin Wang et al.
Elderly colorectal cancer (CRC) patients face high risks of postoperative depression state, inadequately addressed by opioid-based analgesia. Esketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist with rapid antidepressant effects, offers potential benefits but lacks evidence in this population. This double-blind RCT enrolled 99 elderly (≥ 65 years) CRC resection patients, randomized to three postoperative...
Mental Wellness
April 21, 2026
Mohsen Khosravi, Domenico de Berardis, Massimo Tusconi
This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized data from 13 clinical trials (n=606) evaluating psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Despite early enthusiasm, the pooled standardized mean difference (-0.79, 95% confidence interval: -3.98 to 2.40, p=0.63) revealed no statistically significant overall antidepressant effect, with...
Open Access Indonesian Journal of Medical Reviews
April 21, 2026
Siti Nashria Rusdhy, Andrian Fajar Kusumadewi, Carla Raymondalexas Marchira et al.
Psilocybin-assisted therapy shows promise for depression, though current evidence relies on Phase 2 trials with notable methodological limitations. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating psilocybin-assisted therapy for major or treatment-resistant depression up to February 2024. We evaluated depressive symptom severity using...
Clinical and Preventive Medicine
April 20, 2026
Mykola Didukh, K. Freytag, Vitalii Lunov et al.
Introduction. Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, there has been a substantial increase in the need for accessible, rapid-acting, and non-pharmacological approaches to alleviate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among Ukrainian refugees. One potentially useful intervention is the Transcendental Meditation program. Aim. To assess the effectiveness of the...
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
April 20, 2026
Jieping Ding, Zafar Mehnaz Ali, Ateya Megahed Ibrahim et al.
Depression is a prevalent mental health issue among older adults, often exacerbated by chronic illness, social isolation, and age-related cognitive changes. Standard treatments (e.g., pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy) may not always be effective, acceptable, or accessible for this population. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) integrates mindfulness practices with...
Brain Sciences
April 18, 2026
Mădălina Sarca, Iuliana-Anamaria Trăilă, Teodora Anghel et al.
Background/Objectives: Mindfulness-based interventions are widely used to reduce psychological distress. Their long-term neurophysiological correlates remain insufficiently characterized. Using a portable Muse InteraXon® EEG device, this study aimed to evaluate (i) the extent to which a 12-month combined mindfulness and gratitude-based intervention reduces anxiety, depression, and perceived...
Pain Management
April 16, 2026
Theresa R. Lii, Pilleriin Sikka, Ben Deverett et al.
INTRODUCTION Ketamine shows promise for treatment-refractory chronic pain and depression, but randomized trials risk unblinding from ketamine's acute dissociative effects. Propofol sedation may mitigate this, though it has not been prospectively tested as a masking strategy outside of surgical contexts. METHODS This protocol describes a single-center, randomized, double-blind,...
Current Neuropharmacology
April 16, 2026
Xiangying Wei, Shan Xu, Zhaoqiong Zhu
Depression represents a critical global health burden, ranking as the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Although drug therapies remain an important cornerstone in treating depression, we must acknowledge their significant shortcomings: they often take too long to work, cause difficult side effects, and fail to prevent relapse. Critically, while current drugs target specific...
Journal of Affective Disorders
April 15, 2026
Jen-Ping Chen, Chih-Wei Hsu, Yi-Ting Chen et al.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and esketamine are FDA-approved treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), yet head-to-head comparative effectiveness data remain limited. Our study compared the effectiveness and safety profiles of rTMS versus esketamine in adults with TRD. This cohort study used target trial emulation with 1:1 propensity score matching on 50...