Australia has become the first country to approve the use of psychedelics, namely MDMA and psilocybin, for clinical treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Here, we briefly explore the history of its use, how it works, and the hope it may provide people receiving end-of-life care.
NeuroscienceMay 7, 2025Murilo Barboza Fontoura, Jessica Leandra Oliveira da Rosa, Domenika Rubert Rossato et al.3 citations
Addiction is a chronic condition that poses a serious public health challenge, particularly highlighted by the global opioid crisis involving drugs such as morphine (MORPH). One of the major obstacles in effective detoxification is the high relapse rate, with many individuals resuming drug use after withdrawal. Pharmacological treatments developed so far have generally shown limited efficacy in...
Ketamine is recognized as a rapid and sustained antidepressant, particularly for major depression unresponsive to conventional treatments. Anhedonia is a common symptom of depression for which ketamine is highly efficacious, but the underlying circuits and synaptic changes are not well understood. Here, we show that the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is essential for ketamine's effect in rescuing...
This viewpoint explores the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in treating neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly through the modulation of brain entropy and the experience of ego dissolution. Psychedelics disrupt rigid neural patterns, facilitating enhanced connectivity and fostering profound emotional breakthroughs that may alleviate symptoms of disorders like depression, anxiety, PTSD,...
In a thought-provoking Genomic Press interview, Dr. Michael Wheeler emerges as a brilliant scientific innovator at the intersection of neuroscience and immunology. As an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Wheeler's groundbreaking research explores how brain-immune communication shapes our behaviors and emotions. His innovative...
Value in HealthMay 6, 2025Jagpreet Chhatwal, Rachael L Fleurence3 citations
This commentary explores the economic potential of integrating meditation and mindfulness practices into mental health care, highlighting their cost-effectiveness in alleviating mental illness. Despite growing evidence of their benefits in reducing anxiety, depression, and stress, these practices remain underutilized. Economic evaluations are limited because of insufficient funding,...
Prenatal insomnia symptoms are prevalent, debilitating, and largely untreated; yet, there is a lack of empirically supported and accessible interventions. Mindfulness-based interventions have been theoretically hypothesized to alleviate insomnia symptoms by counteracting adverse sleep-related cognitive and behavioral processes, although few studies have tested them. This study aimed to examine...
A robust body of research has linked nightmares to suicide. For example, research has found that nightmares predict suicidal ideation above and beyond other mental health symptoms (such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder) and that treating nightmares may indirectly decrease the risk of suicide. Considering the established link between nightmares and suicide, our goal was to...
SleepMay 1, 2025Zachary Sherman, Albert Vacheron, Rabin Shrestha et al.
Trauma-associated sleep disorder (TASD) is a proposed parasomnia that, while sharing criteria with REM-behavior disorder (RBD) remains under-recognized by clinicians. It is more common in the veteran population, and lacks clear guidelines on treatment, especially when accompanied by dream enactment behavior. A 67 year-old Gulf War veteran presented to sleep clinic with over 30 years of frequent...
Depressive disorders have been consistently associated with elevated levels of mind-wandering and self-focused negative rumination. Separate tracks of research have implicated brain structures within the default mode network (DMN) in both mind-wandering and depression. In this study, we hypothesized that diminished mind-wandering and fewer depressive symptoms would co-occur in individuals with...