BACKGROUND: Previously, the authors have developed a model of how reward-seeking and distress- avoiding behaviour is regulated by the human brain. The forebrain's evolution in vertebrates was taken as a starting point. AIMS: The authors want to inspire colleagues to study in particular the pharmacological effects on the described ancient forebrain structures in order to modify specific symptoms...
Schizophrenia is one of the psychotic mental disorders characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. Newer biomedicine and pharmacotherapy has been investigated for the treatment of various neuropsychiatric disorders in the past few decades. Spinacia oleracea is one of these, reported to have beneficial effect against several neurodegenerative disorders. The present study...
Similar to ketamine, xenon gas acts as a glutamatergic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, but devoid of propensity to cause untoward effects. Herein, we loaded xenon gas into a liposomal carrier called xenon-containing liposomes (Xe-liposome) for systemic delivery, and investigated its effect as an antidepressant and also analyzed synaptic biomarkers including brain-derived neurotrophic...
Hysteresis, the discrepancy in forward and reverse pathways of state transitions, is observed during changing levels of consciousness. Identifying the underlying mechanism of hysteresis phenomena in the brain will enhance the ability to understand, monitor, and control state transitions related to consciousness. We hypothesized that hysteresis in brain networks shares the same underlying...
Physiological reportsAugust 2018Niklas Schuelert, Cornelia Dorner-Ciossek, Michael Brendel et al.
There is growing evidence that impaired sensory processing significantly contributes to cognitive deficits found in schizophrenia. Electroencephalography (EEG) has become an important preclinical and clinical technique to investigate the underlying mechanisms of neurophysiological dysfunctions in psychiatric disorders. Patients with schizophrenia show marked deficits in auditory event-related...
After decades without substantial advances, multiple novel antidepressants show promise against treatment-resistant depression. Interestingly, many of these are anesthetics. The purpose of this review is to discuss the evidence for the antidepressant effects of ketamine, nitrous oxide, isoflurane and propofol and to consider potential clinical, administrative and research implications for...
Mental disorders are rising while development of novel psychiatric medications is declining. This stall in innovation has also been linked with intense debates on the current diagnostics and explanations for mental disorders, together constituting a paradigmatic crisis. A radical innovation is psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP): professionally supervised use of ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin,...
Among patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), depression is prevalent and disabling, impacting both health outcomes and quality of life. There is a critical need for alternative pharmacological methods to treat PD depression, as mainstream antidepressant drugs are largely ineffective in this population. Currently, there are no recommendations for the optimal treatment of PD neuropsychiatric...
NeuronJune 6, 2018Daesoo Kim, Eunji Cheong, Hee-Sup Shin
The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine has been found to have rapid and long-lasting antidepressive effects. Two elegant studies from Hailan Hu's laboratory (Cui et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2018) showed that ketamine blocks burst firing of neurons in the lateral habenula (LHb), rapidly relieving symptoms of depression.
Treatment-resistant mood disorders and anxiety disorders require intensive treatment, but treatment options should balance benefits and adverse effects or other potential detrimental effects on patients, including the risk of developing prescription medication addiction. Some of the newer treatment modalities for mood and anxiety disorders may have similar properties to benzodiazepines. The...