Depression is increasingly conceptualized as a disorder of impaired synaptic plasticity and excitation-inhibition imbalance within corticolimbic circuits. Two rapid-acting therapeutic classes, NMDA receptor modulators (ketamine, esketamine) and neuroactive-steroid GABA-A positive allosteric modulators (brexanolone, zuranolone), offer complementary approaches to restore circuit function....
Ketamine is the first glutamatergic agent in clinical use for major depression, but its primary target remains unclear. Further research is needed to develop more specific interventions with fewer side effects. Ketamine is a noncompetitive antagonist of the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor. Here, we show that ketamine preferentially targets GluN2D-containing NMDA receptors on...
The mechanism of psychedelic drug action is a dynamic area of neuroscience, with two major lines of investigation: (1) laboratory studies at the molecular and cellular level, and (2) human neuroimaging studies of functional brain networks. Despite considerable progress, there remains insufficient understanding of the link between molecular/cellular substrates of psychedelics and the whole-brain...
Anesthesia & AnalgesiaNovember 24, 2025Donggeon Lee, Hayoung Lee, Cheol-Hyeong Lee et al.
BACKGROUND: Drug-induced dreams during intravenous sedation vary by pharmacological agent and influence patient experiences, yet the role of preoperative positive suggestions in modulating these dreams is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the impact of preoperative positive suggestions on drug-induced dream recall (DIDR) frequency, dream content, and subjective perceptions during...
Translational PsychiatryNovember 17, 2025Noah Stapper, Lindsay L Benster, Sahit Menon et al.1 citation
Suicidal ideation (SI) is associated with increased morbidity and is one of the main modifiable risk factors for suicide. While initial evidence indicates the efficacy of several treatments for SI, most treatments were not developed to specifically target SI and are often associated with side effects or high relapse rates. Limited understanding of the neurophysiological basis of SI has hindered...
Chronic primary pain (CPP) persisting for more than 3 months, associated with significant emotional distress without any known underlying cause, is an unmet medical need. Traditional or adjuvant analgesics do not provide satisfactory pain relief for a great proportion of these patients. Therefore, identifying novel therapeutic targets and determining new treatments is important. In the present...
Fluorinated analogs of ketamine, such as 2-fluoro-deschloroketamine and its isomers, have recently emerged as dissociative anesthetics that act through multiple central nervous system pathways. As their prevalence continues to increase, metabolic studies are critical to confirm their use in suspected cases of abuse. 2-Fluoro-N-propylnordeschloroketamine (2-fluoro-2-oxo-PCPr), in which a propyl...
From left to right, results refer to LSD, ketamine, and psilocybin drugs. Panel rows represent (a) the raw values of PID atoms, (b) the NMI-normalised PID atoms, and (c) the NuMIT-normalised PID atoms. The dashed black lines are drawn at zero. (P-values calculated with a one-sample t-test against the zero-mean null hypothesis. *: ppp<0.001).
In this paper, we take up the question of what happens from a psychoanalytic perspective when a patient engages in psychedelic-assisted therapy. While some writers have suggested that psychedelic agents promote regression to an earlier point in development, we argue that such states may be better understood as expanding the mind beyond ordinary consciousness. We assert that traditional models...
This discussion extends psychoanalytic theory and practice to engage expanded states of consciousness elicited by psychedelic medicine. The author utilizes Peoples and Rundel’s clinical illustration involving ketamine-assisted psychoanalysis to propose the intra-collective as a transpersonal holding environment that encompasses and contains the intersubjective field, where highly organized,...