Polydrug use patterns among young adults using ecstasy vary, as well as their willingness to change them. Polydrug use patterns are likely associated with different adverse health outcomes. It is unknown whether polydrug use patterns of young adults who use ecstasy are similar in different countries. This study aims to identify and compare polydrug use patterns and willingness to change them of...
Frontiers in Psychiatry2024Gianna Capodilupo, Raymond Blattner, Anita Must et al.3 citations
Despite the development of many successful pharmaceutical interventions, a significant subset of patients experience treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Ketamine and its derivatives constitute a novel therapeutic approach to treat TRD; however, standard tools, such as the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) are still being used to measure symptoms and track changes. The aim of...
To investigate mechanisms underlying loss of consciousness, it is important to extend methods established in humans to rodents as well. Perturbational complexity index (PCI) is a promising metric of "capacity for consciousness" and is based on a perturbational approach that allows inferring a system's capacity for causal integration and differentiation of information. These properties have been...
Musical hallucination is a rare perceptual phenomenon wherein individuals hear music in the absence of external auditory stimuli. This phenomenon occurs across diverse medical conditions and can be triggered by some drugs. The underlying mechanism of drug-induced hallucination is unknown. This study explores drug-induced musical hallucination through a literature review, aiming to investigate...
Neuroplasticity is characterized by the brain's ability to change its activity in response to extrinsic and intrinsic factors and is thought to be the mechanism behind all brain functions. Neuroplasticity causes structural and functional changes on a molecular level, specifically the growth of different regions in the brain and changes in synaptic and post-synaptic activities. The four types of...
Frontiers in Psychiatry2024Jonathan Martin Flintoff, Suzy Alexander, James Paul Kesby et al.3 citations
Although schizophrenia is associated with a broad range of symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, and reduced motivation, measures of cognitive dysfunction, including cognitive flexibility and executive function, are the strongest predictors of functional outcomes. Antipsychotic medications are useful for reducing psychotic symptoms, but they are ineffective at improving cognitive...
Many features of major depressive disorder are mirrored in rodent models of psychological stress. These models have been used to examine the relationship between the activation of the hypothalamic- pituitary axis in response to stress, the development of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, the dominance of cholinergic neurotransmission and the associated increase in REM sleep pressure....
Brain mechanisms involved in comorbidity between chronic pain conditions and clinical depression are still largely unknown. Our previous studies demonstrated that expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) is both necessary and sufficient for the development of enhanced behavioral emotionality (i.e., depressive- like behaviors) in rodents. Here, we investigated the...
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), originally intended to be used as cigarette substitutes, have evolved into discreet devices for consuming drugs other than nicotine (DOTNs). Presented are the results of an exploratory survey in which information regarding demographics, e-cig device type, DOTN use, frequency and context of use was collected. The average reported age of respondents was 27.4 years...
Modern research data suggest a therapeutic role for serotonergic psychedelics in depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders, although psychotomimetic effects may limit their widespread utilization. Serotonergic psychedelics enhance neuroplasticity via serotonin 2 A receptors (5HT2AR) activation and complex serotonergic-glutamatergic interactions involving the ionotropic glutamate...