Depression is common at the end of life, and there is longstanding concern that it may affect terminally ill patients' decisions to request physician-assisted death (PAD). However, it is difficult for clinicians to determine the role of depression in a patient's PAD request. A recent case series described rapid responses to intranasal ketamine in three patients with terminal illness and...
Schizophrenia and states induced by certain psychotomimetic drugs may share some physiological and phenomenological properties, but they differ in fundamental ways: one is a crippling chronic mental disease, while the others are temporary, pharmacologically-induced states presently being explored as treatments for mental illnesses. Building towards a deeper understanding of these different...
A scientometric analysis was realized to outline clinical research on psychedelics over the last century. Web of Science Core Collection was searched up to March 18, 2022, for publications on psychedelics. Network analyses and bibliometrics were combined, to identify research themes and trends with Bibliometrix and CiteSpace. The primary aim was to measure research trends evolution over time,...
Two recent randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials have provided exciting new evidence for the rapid antidepressant effects of inhalational nitrous oxide [1, 2]. Intriguingly, nitrous oxide has been shown to faithfully mimic, in experimental rodents, key characteristics of drugs that block N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors such as, most notably, ketamine [3], the first...
Therapy is turning to drugs previously known for being illicit party substances. But there’s no reason to abandon proper trials. A range of new therapies for mental illness were previously considered unthinkable — party drugs including ketamine, medicinal cannabis and psychedelics like MDMA, psilocybin and DMT. With mental health disorders a growing cause of disability […]
Acta Médica PortuguesaOctober 5, 2022Diogo Frasquilho Guerreiro, Ana Lisa Carmo, Joaquim Alves da Silva et al.2 citations
Club drugs are the following substances: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA); Methamphetamine; Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD); Ketamine; Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and Flunitrazepam. These substances are mainly used by adolescents and young adults, mostly in recreational settings like dance clubs and rave parties. These drugs have diverse psychotropic effects, are associated with several...
The utility of classical drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders (e.g., antidepressants, anxiolytics) is often limited by issues of lack of efficacy, delayed onset of action or side effects. Psychoactive substances have a long history of being used as tools to alter consciousness and as a gateway to approach the unknown and the divinities. These substances were initially obtained from plants...
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Persistent ketamine insults to the central nervous system block NMDA receptors and disrupt putative neurotransmission, oxido-nitrosative, and inflammatory pathways, resulting in schizophrenia-like symptoms in animals. Previously, the ethnomedicinal benefits of Carpolobia lutea against insomnia, migraine headache, and insanity has been documented, but the...
Objective.Understanding neurophysiological changes that accompany transitions between anaesthetized and conscious states is a key objective of anesthesiology and consciousness science. This study aimed to characterize the dynamics of auditory-evoked potential morphology in mice along a continuum of consciousness.Approach.Epidural field potentials were recorded from above the primary auditory...
New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) emergence of in the global illicit market has grown significantly since the 2000s.Despite the drop in the number of new identifications annually, they still cause severe cases of intoxication, many of them fatal.The present work developed and validated a method for the analysis of more than 100 NPS and conventional drugs of abuse in oral fluid (OF) samples and...