Biomolecules
August 24, 2026
Agnieszka Pałucha-Poniewiera
The use of animal models to study mental illnesses, such as depression, requires proper standardization and extensive expertise. Achieving good construct, face, and predictive validity in depression models is quite challenging. Currently, only a few environmental models, mostly based on chronic stress, and a limited number of genetic models fulfill these criteria. In the quest for new...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
August 23, 2026
Benjamin Pham
preprint
This paper examines dimethyltryptamine (DMT) as one of the most unusual and scientifically provocative psychoactive substances ever studied. It traces DMT’s history from Indigenous Amazonian ayahuasca traditions and Richard Spruce’s nineteenth-century observations to twentieth-century psychedelic science, countercultural fascination, prohibition, and the modern revival of clinical research. The...
bioRxiv
August 20, 2026
Ilknur Kayikcioglu Bozkir, Ryan Lashin, Tiecheng Liu et al.
preprint
Psilocybin is a psychedelic which has been shown to induce neural plasticity through activation of intracellular serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors. It also produces brain-wide changes in structural and functional connectivity and holds promise as a therapeutic compound for treating anxiety and depression. Despite links between psilocybin-induced plasticity, the psychedelic experience, and reduction...
Lynchburg Journal of Medical Science
August 20, 2026
Rachel N Clark
The purpose of this review is to evaluate the possible benefits of using psilocybin (C12H17N2O4P), a naturally occurring psychoactive compound found in certain species of mushrooms, in the treatment of multiple forms of mental illness and substance use disorders, either as monotherapy or in conjunction with traditional psychiatric medications. The compound has high affinity for several...
Frontiers in Pharmacology
August 19, 2026
İlay Buran Kavuran, Ebru Önalan, Zeliha İrem Türk et al.
Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with multiple pathophysiological mechanisms, including dysregulation of monoaminergic systems, excessive glutamatergic activity, reduced neurotrophic support, inflammation, and oxidative stress. The combination of dextromethorphan, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist and sigma-1 receptor agonist, with bupropion, a...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
August 17, 2026
David Eckert
The re-emergence of serotonergic psychedelics has introduced rapid-acting antidepressant effects and has been widely described as a paradigmatic shift in depression treatment. Recently, there has been intense debate about whether the acute subjective effects of psychedelics are necessary for their therapeutic efficacy or merely byproducts of underlying neuroplastic processes. Recent...
Der Nervenarzt
August 17, 2026
Stefan Vestring, Katharina Domschke, Claus Normann
Ketamine has been established as an anesthetic agent for decades. Around the turn of the millennium initial clinical studies demonstrated that subanesthetic doses of ketamine can exert antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression. These findings established the concept of an effective glutamatergic antidepressant treatment and initiated a paradigm shift. For many years, intravenous...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
August 16, 2026
Maximillian Greenwald, Peter Thestrup Waade, Eren Kafadar et al.
preprint
Abstract Serotonergic psychedelics (SP) are increasingly used in clinical research and naturalistic settings, but their psychotic-like side effects, including persisting perceptual abnormalities (PPAs), are poorly understood. Psychosis-associated hallucinations are associated with susceptibility to conditioned hallucinations and computationally-estimated overweighting of perceptual...
medRxiv
August 14, 2026
Annette M Braxton, Christina Driver, Daniel F. Hermens et al.
preprint
Abstract Major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are prevalent, chronic, and disabling mental health conditions which are difficult to treat. Ketamine has demonstrated effect for improving depression and PTSD symptoms independently but reports often overlook focused comorbid improvement of these symptoms within individuals. To address this, we assessed...
ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters
August 13, 2026
Ram W. Sabnis, Anika R. Sabnis
Provided herein are novel tetrahydropyridinyl-6,6-bicyclic compounds as 5-HT2A receptor agonists, pharmaceutical compositions, use of such compounds in treating depression, anxiety, substance abuse and headaches, and processes for preparing such compounds.