Firefighters are exposed to a disproportionately high number of traumatic incidents and, thus, display elevated rates of trauma-related mental health disorders, with the reported average PTSD prevalence being 7.3% in firefighters vs 1.3-3.5% in the general populationOftentimes, conventional treatments demonstrate limited efficacy. Ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT) has recently arisen with...
Australia recently became the first country to reschedule methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) to permit authorized prescribing for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) outside of clinical trials. This study explored the direct experience of Australian clinicians, researchers, and patients regarding the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) for PTSD to inform guideline development....
Ketamine, a nonselective NMDA-receptor antagonist, is an emerging therapeutic for treatment-resistant depression and could also be a promising treatment for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders. However, preclinical studies in these areas lack methodological standardization, limiting clinical translatability. This review evaluates ketamine's anxiolytic potential in rodents by examining...
Prior work from our lab and others demonstrates that the endocannabinoid system is a promising avenue for improving fear memory deficits in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Specifically, 7.5 mg of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) decreases fear responding in healthy adults and increases prefrontal cortex activation during extinction learning and fear renewal in adults with PTSD. The...
NeuroscienceJanuary 26, 2026Batoul Darwish, Jad El Masri, Lina Hourieh et al.
Neurogenesis in the adult brain is a precisely regulated process that remains highly sensitive to intrinsic and extrinsic influences. Among the external factors are psychological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which arises after exposure to trauma such as war, accidents, violence, or natural disasters. PTSD, as well as other disorders like stress and depression, has...
CureusJanuary 21, 2026Ron Gabriel A Peji, Diane D Lipat, Alyssia M de Rojas
Trauma-related perceptual experiences may resemble psychotic symptoms, creating diagnostic challenges in adolescent populations. We report the case of a Filipino preadolescent female diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder following prolonged intrafamilial sexual abuse. During trauma-focused psychotherapy incorporating expressive techniques, the patient...
Background: Lucid dreaming (LD), which involves being aware of and controlling one’s dreams, is of particular interest in the study of consciousness and has potential therapeutic applications. In this narrative review, we highlight the neurobiological aspects of LD, specifically its mechanisms associated with the activation of prefrontal and parietal areas, increased gamma oscillations, and the...
Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly prevalent among people with HIV (PWH) and is associated with poor psychological functioning and reduced adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), threatening treatment outcomes. Although the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) have separately demonstrated efficacy for PTSD, no intervention...
Chittodvega, described in Ayurvedic literature as a Vata-dominant Manasika Vyadhi, closely resembles Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to its shared features of mental agitation, fear, intrusive thoughts, irritabil-ity, and insomnia. This case study evaluates the therapeutic effect of cyclic Raj yoga meditation, Bhramari Pra-nayama, deep abdominal breathing, and Om chanting on a...
iScienceJanuary 16, 2026Amir Valizadeh, John D Roache, Xinyu Zhang et al.2 citations
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibits extensive clinical and biological variability, making treatment challenging. The Consortium to Alleviate PTSD (CAP)-ketamine trial, the largest randomized study of ketamine for PTSD, found no overall benefit of ketamine over placebo, underscoring the necessity to identify responsive subgroups. Using pre-treatment blood DNA methylation profiles and...
This nightmare-focused study was conducted based on data collected in an open-label, controlled treatment pilot trial conducted at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (CPCR) under an approved protocol (IRB00407008; NCT06407635). Participants completed screening, baseline assessment, four preparatory sessions, two psilocybin dosing sessions, seven post-session...
This project explores a translational research framework for trauma recovery and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) integrating evidence from psychoplastogenic compounds, autonomic regulation, interoceptive neuroscience, affective somatosensory signaling, psychophysiology, and structured somatic intervention. The work emphasizes rigorous evidence stratification, methodological transparency,...
Combat-related stress is associated with autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation-sympathetic predominance, reduced vagal tone, and decreased heart rate variability (HRV)-linked to increased cardiovascular risk. Non-pharmacological interventions targeting autonomic regulation show promise, but controlled studies in combat-exposed populations remain limited. We assessed whether adding a...
Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy is effective for PTSD, yet dropout and partial response remain concerning. Preclinical and human studies suggest Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) enhances fear extinction and recall through brain cannabinoid receptor activation in fear processing. Examine whether synthetic THC (dronabinol) augments PE effectiveness. Double-blind, placebo-controlled, trial with...
3,4‐Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)‐assisted psychotherapy (MDMA‐AP) has shown promise in treating post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), particularly in treatment‐resistant cases. However, little is known about its potential to precipitate adverse psychiatric outcomes. We present the case of a 31‐year‐old woman with nondistressing childhood compulsions, chronic PTSD, and complex medical...
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) modulates stress responsivity and social-affective behaviors, but its role in mood and trauma-related disorders remains poorly defined due to challenges in peripheral measurement. This study used copeptin, a stable, reliable, and well-validated surrogate marker of AVP secretion, to assess vasopressinergic function in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals...
Traditional monoaminergic medications often offer limited relief for the physical and cognitive symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD. Growing data now point to fast-acting, glutamate-based treatments that boost synaptic plasticity and interrupt fear-conditioned neural circuits. We report four sequential cases of hard-to-treat trauma-spectrum disorders-somatic PTSD,...
BACKGROUND: While clinical research on psychedelics often reports mild and transient side effects, broader survey studies indicate that a subset of users experiences lasting adverse mental health effects. This study investigated whether some of these meet diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHODS: = 243) was conducted with individuals reporting distressing...