Borderline personality disorder is a complex psychiatric disorder with limited treatment options that are associated with large heterogeneity in treatment response and high rates of dropout. New or complementary treatments for borderline personality disorder are needed that may be able to bolster treatment outcomes. In this review, the authors comment on the plausibility for research on...
Psychedelic compounds such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) have attracted increasing interest in recent years because of their therapeutic potential in psychiatric disorders. To understand the acute effects of psychedelic drugs in vivo, blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) has been widely used. In particular, fMRI studies have suggested that MDMA leads to...
Anxiety associated with life-threatening illness (LTI) is a pervasive mental health issue with a wide impact. A spectrum of traditional pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies are available, but offer varying success in reducing symptoms and improving quality of life. We explore a novel therapy for this condition by assessing prominent thematic elements from participant narrative accounts of a...
The illicit drug market of novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) is expanding, becoming an alarming threat due to increasing intoxication cases and insufficient (if any) knowledge of their effects. Phenethylamine 2-chloro-4,5-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (2-Cl-4,5-MDMA) and synthetic cathinone 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (3,4-MDPHP) are new, emerging NPSs suggested to be...
3,4–Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “Ecstasy”) is a serotonin- and noradrenaline-releasing substance, currently among the most widely used illicit substances worldwide. In animal studies, repeated exposure to MDMA has been associated with dendritic but also axonal degeneration in the brain. However, translation of the axonal findings, specifically, to humans has been repeatedly questioned...
Provided herein are MDMA and their analogs for the potential psychotherapy-assisted treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and a method of predicting dosing and patient response.
Abstract Background Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUDs) often co-occur in adolescent patients. Previous research has shown that these patients differ from SUD patients without PTSD in terms of their substance use patterns. In this study, we aimed to test whether substance use in this population is related to an attempt to self-medicate PTSD-related symptoms....
Abstract Background Among the renewed applications of psychedelic medicines in psychiatry, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)–assisted therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has demonstrated the most promise in early small-scale studies. Recent exploratory analyses from prior clinical trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD have suggested that recent use of selective serotonin...
Objectives: Ecstasy is a popular recreational psychostimulant with side effects on the central nervous system. This study examined the corpus striatum tissue of adult rats that received ecstasy during the embryonic period for histological and molecular studies. Materials and methods: Rats were divided into control and ecstasy groups. The ecstasy group was given MDMA 15 mg/kg intraperitoneally...
There is renewed interest in the clinical application of hallucinogenic substances to treat a range of psychiatric conditions. However, there is mixed evidence regarding how use of such substances outside of medical settings relates to psychological distress, depression, and suicidality. We examined data from a US representative sample of noninstitutionalized adults from the 2015-2020 National...
Although early therapeutic research on psychedelics dates back to the 1940s, this field of investigation was met with many cultural and legal challenges in the 1970s. Over the past two decades, clinical trials using psychedelics have resumed. Therefore, the goal of this study was to (1) better characterize the recent uptrend in psychedelics in clinical trials and (2) identify areas where...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental health condition that begins after exposure to a traumatic event. Despite recommended various therapeutic approaches, including both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, treatment is not as effective as expected. Over recent years the pharmaceutical industry has not been able to offer a new approach, founded on multiple mechanisms of...
A persistent 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) exposure may disrupt the human body serotonergic system which subsequently leads to physical and psychiatric chaos. Serotonin, a well-known monoamine neurotransmitter which is the main target of MDMA can be found in cerebrospinal (CSF) fluid. Its variation reflects the severity of neuronal damage caused by MDMA exposure. Hence, this article...
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a psychoactive substance that is used commonly as a recreational drug at rave music festivals. MDMA intoxication can cause a myriad of symptoms and side effects including the manifestation of hyperpyrexia in patients. Hyperpyrexia can mimic a heat stroke and ultimately lead to various forms of end-organ damage. The most common methods used in treating...
Introduction: Small-scale clinical studies with psychedelic drugs have shown promising results for the treatment of several mental disorders. Before psychedelics become registered medicines, it is important to know the full range of adverse events (AEs) for making balanced treatment decisions. Objective: To systematically review the presence of AEs during and after administration of...
This study sought to investigate the effects of different substances on nature relatedness (NR) in the general population. An online cross-sectional survey done in Brazil investigated use of ayahuasca/DMT, psilocybe mushrooms, LSD, MDMA/ecstasy, cocaine, cannabis, and alcohol. NR was assessed using the short-form version of the nature related scale (NR-6). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)...
Purpose Following deaths and hospitalisations in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, related to the unwitting consumption of a combination of 25C-NBOMe and 4-FA, a community-led unauthorised drug checking service was rapidly established at a subsequent music festival. We aim to demonstrate the value of community-led drug checking, even when conducted in less-than-ideal conditions, by describing...
Abstract Background and Aims Hallucinogen use is potentially harmful. Information on whether such use has increased in recent decades is lacking. This study assessed overall and age‐specific time trends in the prevalence of 12‐month hallucinogen use in the US general population. Design Cross‐sectional. Setting Data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2002–19. Participants...
Abstract Objective: Psychedelic-assisted therapies are emerging as safe and effective treatments for some psychological conditions including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders. As ketamine therapy is already available in general medicine and 3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin are in late-stage clinical trials, neuropsychologists...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental illness with limited treatment options and a high treatment dropout rate. Psychedelics, often in combination with psychotherapy, are now under investigation as a potential treatment option for a variety of psychiatric conditions including PTSD. This paper reviews the proposed mechanism of action for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine...