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...
CNS DrugsJune 1, 2025Sijia Zhang, Houtan Afshar, Peter J. Colvonen et al.1 citation
Ketamine and esketamine are increasingly used to manage treatment-resistant depression and have also been shown to reduce symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Little is known about how common comorbidities in the veteran population, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI) or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), may influence ketamine and esketamine treatment outcomes. In this retrospective...
Abstract Background Ketamine has emerged as a rapid-acting therapeutic option for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, its ability to sustain long-term therapeutic outcomes remains poorly understood. Identifying molecular biomarkers predictive of a sustained response to ketamine may enhance personalised treatment strategies. This study investigates the epigenetic and transcriptomic...
Ketamine’s rapid acting symptom relief make it a promising intervention for PTSD. However, the mechanisms driving its long-term efficacy over weeks and months remain poorly understood. This study investigated the short-and long-term impacts on gene expression of a six-week subanesthetic oral ketamine trial in 23 PTSD participants (9 males, 14 females). Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs)...
Law enforcement is a high-stress profession, with officers frequently exposed to traumatic events, leading to mental health challenges such as communication anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anger management difficulties, and mood disorders. Mindfulness meditation (MM), particularly when guided through short video applications, has shown promise in addressing these issues by...
Despite extensive research on mindfulness, there is a dearth of studies exploring its impact on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through the intermediaries of psychological resilience and perceived stress. In response to a violent campus event, this article investigates the association between mindfulness levels among college students and the presence of PTSD using a sequential mediation...
This paper is an edited transcript of a plenary panel held at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The panel comprised Drs. Mark Creamer (moderator), Richard Bryant (convenor), Amy Lehrner, Barbara O. Rothbaum, Joseph I. Ruzek, and Paula P. Schnurr. Bringing together clinicians and researchers with a...
SleepMay 1, 2025Kira Clare, Riona Yoshida, Kimberly Savin et al.
Nightmares and insomnia commonly co-occur with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), with 70% to 91% of individuals with PTSD reporting chronic nightmares and insomnia. Evidence suggests that even gold standard treatments for PTSD (such as Prolonged Exposure, PE) and insomnia (CBT-I) individually may not fully resolve nightmares. Our study presents secondary analyses of a randomized controlled...
Nightmares and non-nightmare sleep disturbances are a core feature of posttraumatic stress disorder. Effective treatments remain elusive. Doxazosin is an alpha-1 adrenergic blocker with demonstrated promise, but there is a dearth of evidence from randomized controlled trials on its effectiveness. We report findings from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating the...
Abstract Introduction Recent studies and anecdotal reports suggest that sleep-onset hypnagogic dreams can contain creative insights, in some cases leading to Nobel prizes. While such reports are rare, targeted dream incubation (TDI) can induce dreams on pre-selected topics, such as “a tree,” in 70% of dream reports collected shortly after sleep onset, as well as a subsequent increase in...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are part of the normal response to trauma. Most trauma survivors will recover over time without intervention, but a significant minority will develop chronic PTSD, which is unlikely to remit without intervention. Currently, only two medications, sertraline and paroxetine, are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat PTSD, and the...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)/blast traumatic brain injury (bTBI) in a Special Operations Forces (SOF) cohort has been shown to be successfully treated using a cervical sympathetic blockade (CSB)/ketamine infusion (KI) combination, termed the SOF method. In a prior case report, the patient was followed for 1 year. This report followed the same patient for a total of 720 days and found...
Psychedelic experiences involving extreme feelings of horror, helplessness, and perceived threats can be traumatizing. Traumatic psychedelic experiences are a rare, extreme, and largely preventable form of challenging experience which can arise due to frightening psychedelic drug effects, unsafe settings, and emergence of pre-existing trauma. Some people recover quickly, but others develop...
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with poor hippocampal function and disrupted pattern recognition. Cannabis use is highly prevalent in individuals with PTSD, yet the impact on these cognitive functions is poorly understood. Participants (n = 111) with a range of PTSD symptoms with and without regular cannabis use completed the mnemonic similarity task. We hypothesized that...
Abstract. Illness requiring critical care can lead to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a complex mental health condition resulting from exposure to traumatic events. In the intensive care unit (ICU), the nature of interventions often contributes to a high incidence of PTSD, which is a significant component of post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). This article provides a...
Background and Objectives. Our recent systematic review and meta-analysis of all studies on meditation as treatment for PTSD (61 studies) found a moderate effect size of Hedges's g = -0.67 for post-minus-pre change in symptom scores. Separate tests of the four meditation categories found a large effect size of g = -1.13 for the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique that is significantly...
Studies of psychedelic use in naturalistic and clinical settings have suggested safety and mental health benefits for adults with histories of childhood maltreatment. Acute psychological mechanisms that predict therapeutic benefits in this population, however, have yet to be determined. Two common group settings of naturalistic psychedelic use - organized ceremonies and raves or other...
Objective: This open-label clinical trial examined the preliminary efficacy of combining a course of 6 ketamine infusions with a brief, evidence-based exposure-based psychotherapy-written exposure therapy (WET)-in patients with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods: The trial was conducted between June 2021 and October 2023. Patients with chronic PTSD and high-moderate to severe...
This scoping review addresses the need to comprehensively explore the potential of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) to facilitate recovery from moral injury. Moral injury (MI), characterized by profound psychological distress arising from morally challenging experiences, has garnered increased attention as a complex mental health concern with significant functional sequelae, especially...
IntroductionFirefighters face routine occupational risks and high-stress environments. Accordingly, 96.4% are exposed to a potentially traumatizing event throughout their career (Nazari et al. Work 2020; 67(1):215-222). This is accompanied by high rates of trauma-related mental illnesses (TRMI) such as PTSD. First-line treatments of TRMI remain limited. A novel treatment that has emerged,...