Psychoactives
June 23, 2025
Georgios Mikellides
7 citations
Ketamine and esketamine are two closely related compounds with fast-acting antidepressant properties that have reshaped the treatment landscape for individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Originally developed as anesthetic agents, both have since demonstrated rapid and robust antidepressant effects in patients who have not responded to conventional treatments such as selective...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
June 15, 2025
Michael Von Gunten, Tenna Russell, Isaac Stirland et al.
preprint
Psychedelics are emerging as a promising treatment option for a range of neuropsychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders. One potential mechanism underlying their therapeutic benefits may involve a reversal of maladaptive plasticity induced by drug exposure. Here, we identify physiological, behavioral, and epigenetic impacts of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on morphine-treated...
Molecular Neurobiology
June 5, 2025
Lucas C. Santos, Fernanda Dos Santos Petry, Carolina Saibro-Girardi et al.
4 citations
Stress is widely recognized as a major environmental factor contributing to the development of mood disorders. In patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and suicidal behavior, significant hyperactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is observed, characterized by excessive cortisol release, which in turn stimulates the production of pro-inflammatory mediators....
June 4, 2025
Klemens Egger
Over the past decade, research with psychedelics has gained new momentum, leading to a psychedelic renaissance in both basic and clinical research. Among these substances is ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant medicine used for millennia by indigenous people for ritualistic and healing practices, which has recently entered research labs in the Americas and Europe. Preliminary findings indicate its...
Cephalalgia
June 1, 2025
Davide Fedeli, Giuseppe Ciullo, Greta Demichelis et al.
7 citations
Background/HypothesisMindfulness practice has gained attention in managing chronic migraine with medication overuse headache (CM-MOH), showing clinical improvements and functional connectivity reorganization. However, the relationship between these effects and the underlying neurotransmitter systems remains unexplored.MethodsThirty-four CM-MOH patients were divided into treatment as usual (TaU,...
Psychopharmacology
June 1, 2025
Nathan J Wellington, Ana P. Bouças, Jim Lagopoulos et al.
16 citations
Existing studies predominantly focus on the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms underlying Ketamine's acute treatment effects on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This emphasis has largely overlooked its sustained therapeutic effects, which hold significant potential for the development of targeted interventions. This systematic review examines the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
May 28, 2025
Yana Vella, Kateřina Syrová, Aneta Petrušková et al.
1 citation
Recent evidence suggests that psychedelics can induce rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects. The generally acknowledged explanation for these traits is the phenomenon of neuroplasticity, although the exact underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigates the effects of psilocin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on synaptogenesis...
Brain Sciences
May 26, 2025
Charles Palmer, Ally T Ferber, Brian D Greenwald
4 citations
Background: This narrative review explores psilocybin’s potential use as a therapeutic agent in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: We engaged in a search of PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane’s databases for information on the effects of psilocybin. We also reviewed articles where psilocybin was used in patients with TBI. Articles from 2000–2025 were included. Results: A...
Cell Reports
May 21, 2025
Lace M Riggs, Sage Aronson, Ta-Chung M. Mou et al.
2 citations
An acute increase in excitatory synaptic transmission contributes to the rapid antidepressant actions of neuroplastogens, including ketamine and its bioactive metabolite, (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK). It is hypothesized that drug-induced metaplastic changes in synaptic strength account for therapeutically relevant behavioral adaptations in vivo. Using the plasticity-deficient Wistar Kyoto...
Physiology & Behavior
May 20, 2025
Kaspar McCoy, Felicia Reed, Kyna‐anne Conn et al.
4 citations
Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, has emerged as a promising treatment for a range of mental health conditions, including anorexia nervosa. Recent insights from animal models and human imaging studies suggest psilocybin enhances cognitive flexibility and modifies reward processing - two core processes disrupted in anorexia nervosa. Both cognitive flexibility and reward processing are...
Neuropharmacology
May 15, 2025
Mu Xu, Jialiang Wang, Jia Shi et al.
4 citations
Esketamine (ES) has been shown to confer neuroprotection partly by exerting anti-inflammation, alleviating oxidative stress, enhancing neuronal vitality, and promoting synaptic remodeling. Nonetheless, its precise function in SAE and the associated mechanisms are not understood. In this study, we investigated the neuroprotective potential of ES at behavioral, structural, and functional levels...
Science
May 8, 2025
Z Zack Ma, Natalie J Guzikowski, Ji-Woon Kim et al.
44 citations
Repeated ketamine treatment to maintain a rapid antidepressant effect can lead to side effects over time, highlighting an unmet clinical need for sustaining this drug's antidepressant action from a single administration. Ketamine-induced synaptic potentiation at CA3-CA1 synapses has been proposed to be a key synaptic substrate for antidepressant action. Here, we found that ketamine-induced...
Neuron
May 7, 2025
Federica Lucantonio, Jacob Roeglin, Shuwen Li et al.
24 citations
Ketamine is recognized as a rapid and sustained antidepressant, particularly for major depression unresponsive to conventional treatments. Anhedonia is a common symptom of depression for which ketamine is highly efficacious, but the underlying circuits and synaptic changes are not well understood. Here, we show that the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is essential for ketamine's effect in rescuing...
Experimental Brain Research
May 4, 2025
Ceyda Özler, Esra Özkan, Narges Shomalizadeh et al.
1 citation
Recent studies in mouse models have demonstrated that ketamine and rapastinel induce rapid-acting and sustained antidepressant effects in major depressive disorder (MDD). However, it remains unclear how ketamine's and rapastinel's opposing mechanisms of action-NMDAR antagonist and NMDAR positive allosteric modulator, respectively-result in similar antidepressant-like effects. Furthermore,...
Journal of anatomy
May 1, 2025
F Spani, Filippo Carducci, Claudia Piervincenzi et al.
5 citations
Morphological markers for brain plasticity are still lacking and their findings are challenged by the extreme variability of cortical brain surface. Trying to overcome the "correspondence problem," we applied a landmark-free method (the generalized procrustes surface analysis (GPSA)) for investigating the shape variation of cortical surface in a group of 40 healthy volunteers (i.e., the...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 2025
Tania Singer
8 citations
Over the past two decades, the fields of social and contemplative neurosciences have made significant strides. Initial research utilizing fMRI identified neuronal networks involved in empathy, mentalizing, and compassion, as well as complex interactions among these networks. Subsequent studies shifted to testing the plasticity of these social skills via different types of mindfulness- or...
Neuropsychopharmacology
May 1, 2025
Kyle A Brown, Musa I Ajibola, Todd D Gould
13 citations
The pharmacologically active (R,S)-ketamine (ketamine) metabolite (2 R,6 R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) maintains ketamine's preclinical antidepressant profile without adverse effects. While hypotheses have been proposed to explain how ketamine and its metabolites initiate their antidepressant-relevant effects, it remains unclear how sustained therapeutic actions arise following drug elimination....
Neuropharmacology
May 1, 2025
Jakub Schimmelpfennig, Kamila Jankowiak-Siuda
47 citations
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a naturally occurring amine and psychedelic compound, found in plants, animals, and humans. While initial studies reported only trace amounts of DMT in mammalian brains, recent findings have identified alternative methylation pathways and DMT levels comparable to classical neurotransmitters in rodent brains, calling for a re-evaluation of its biological role and...
Clinical and Translational Science
May 1, 2025
Katelijne V. van der Heijden, Rob G J A Zuiker, Marije E. Otto et al.
7 citations
The serotonergic psychedelic N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) presumably stimulates neuroplasticity in vitro and in vivo, by which it may exert neuroprotective effects during acute ischemic stroke. Since neuroplasticity has been implicated in the mechanism of action of rehabilitative therapy in stroke recovery, a pharmacological augmentation strategy facilitating neuroplasticity could be...
Psychedelics
April 22, 2025
Elizabeth J. Brouns, Tyler G. Ekins, Omar J. Ahmed
Psychedelic compounds have demonstrated remarkable therapeutic potential for treating neuropsychiatric disorders by promoting sustained neuroplasticity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Cognitive flexibility-the ability to adapt previously learned rules to novel situations-represents a critical PFC function that is frequently impaired in depression, PTSD, and neurodegenerative conditions. In this...