This research focuses on the promising use of esketamine in perinatal depression, a widespread disorder impacting postpartum women's mental health. Despite esketamine's known rapid antidepressant effects, its precise mechanisms are not fully understood. This study integrates clinical and preclinical approaches to explore esketamine's efficacy in treating perinatal depression and its actions...
Introduction: Psychedelics are emerging as potential treatments for neuropsychiatric conditions, with evidence suggesting a single administration can lead to enduring behavioural changes. While the underlying putative mechanism(s) remain unclear, there is evidence supporting altered learning as a key candidate. Aim: This systematic review examined studies assessing the effects of psychedelics...
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant global health challenge, with limited effective treatments for its acute and chronic consequences. TBI is characterized by neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, impaired neuroplasticity, imbalances in neurotransmission, and cell death - factors that contribute to the development of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Emerging evidence suggests...
Neuropsychiatric disorders reflect disruptions in brain network dynamics along an "order-complexity-chaos" continuum. Psychedelics may therapeutically increase neural entropy, disrupt maladaptive patterns, and promote network reorganization. This system-level framework emphasizes dynamic connectome remodeling over static molecular correction, offering a novel strategy for treating psychiatric...
Ketamine infusion therapy has gained recognition as an innovative treatment for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), demonstrating rapid and robust antidepressant effects. Its therapeutic promise is increasingly understood to involve molecular and neurobiological processes that promote neural plasticity and cognitive flexibility. These changes may create a unique window for psychotherapeutic...
Arketamine, the (R)-enantiomer of (R,S)-ketamine, shows even greater rapid and sustained antidepressant-like effects in rodent models compared to esketamine, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we used the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) model to investigate how arketamine exerts its antidepressant-like effects. We found that activating cAMP response element-binding...
Molecular PsychiatryJuly 7, 2025Dongsun Park, Gwangho Lee, Won-Gyu Lee et al.7 citations
Major depressive disorder is a debilitating condition, with many patients unresponsive to conventional monoaminergic antidepressants. Rapid-acting antidepressants such as ketamine and psilocybin offer promising alternatives, relieving symptoms within hours. Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, and psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic primarily targeting 5-HT2A receptors, both enhance...
Psychedelic compounds such as ketamine and MDMA have shown therapeutic promise for mood and trauma-related disorders, yet their molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study applied a Brain-Epigenome-Wide Association Study (BEWAS) to assess DNA methylation changes in brain-enriched genes following treatment. Pre- and post-treatment blood (ketamine, N = 20) and saliva (MDMA, N = 16) samples...
The resurgence of interest in classical psychedelics brings both promise and challenges to psychiatric care. Increasing evidence supports the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for a range of mental health conditions, and approval for clinical use appears inevitable. The psychedelic-associated acute subjective experience may mediate or enhance therapeutic outcomes, but also presents...
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown promise in reducing stress among family caregivers (FCs) of people with dementia (PWD). However, the long-term stress-relieving effects of traditional MBIs are often limited by challenges in maintaining regular practice, leading to issues with adherence and attrition. To address these limitations, this study protocol aims to test a novel...