Chronic pain is a public health concern that affects approximately 1.5 billion people globally. Conventional therapeutic agents including opioid and non-opioid analgesics have been associated with adverse side effects, issues with addiction, and ineffective analgesia. Novel agents repurposed to treat pain via different mechanisms are needed to fill the therapeutic gap in chronic pain...
Since depression is a common mental illness affecting an estimated 5% of people worldwide, investigators are encouraged to develop effective antidepressants. According to the monoamine-deficiency hypothesis, the underlying pathophysiology of depression is a deficiency of some neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine) in the central nervous system. The neurotransmitter serotonin...
A ayahuasca é uma bebida alucinógena originária na América do Sul, utilizada por indígenas em rituais xamânicos. É obtida através da fermentação de duas plantas, a folha da P. viridis, na qual é obtida a dimetiltriptamina (DMT), substância responsável pelos efeitos alucinógenos e o cipó B. caapi que contém β-carbolinas (harmina, harmalina e tetraidro-harmina). As β-carbolinas impedem a...
ABSTRACT Psychedelic drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin have emerged as potentially transformative therapeutics for many neuropsychiatric diseases, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, migraine, and cluster headaches. LSD and psilocybin exert their psychedelic effects via activation of the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor (HTR2A). Here we provide...
Introduction: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness caused by exposure to a traumatic event. The current treatment includes trauma-focused psychotherapy along with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). It is estimated that for about 40-60% of patients it does not bring the desired improvement, which prompted scientists to look for new methods of pharmacotherapy....
Background Subanesthetic ketamine has accumulated meta-analytic evidence for rapid antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), resulting in both excitement and debate. Many unanswered questions surround ketamine’s mechanisms of action and its integration into real-world psychiatric care, resulting in diverse utilizations that variously resemble electroconvulsive therapy,...
Ring-substituted phenethylamines are believed to induce psychedelic effects primarily by interacting with 5-hydroxytryptamine 2 (5-HT2A) receptors in the brain. We assessed the effect of the psychedelic substances 25H-NBOMe and 25H-NBOH on the depressive-like behavior of male adult rats. Naive Wistar rats were divided into groups to assess the effects of different doses (0.1 mg/kg, 1 mg/kg, and...
The psychedelic N,N- dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is in clinical development for the treatment of major depressive disorder. However, when administered via intravenous infusion, its effects are short-lived due to rapid clearance. Here we describe the synthesis of deuterated analogues of DMT with the aim of prolonging the half-life and decreasing the clearance rate while maintaining similar...
Psychedelics as therapeutic agents have generated significant attention from clinicians and media sources in recent years. The authors provide an update to the psychiatric trainee on the evidence for psychedelics in the treatment of major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Many modern clinical trials of the classic, serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, ayahuasca,...
SSRIs mediate antidepressant effects by inhibiting specific serotonin transport(SERT) and subsequent modulation of serotonin levels in the brain. This review paper provides an overview of the mechanisms of action of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as well as psychedelics, including their potential therapeutic applications in treating psychiatric disorders. By examining the...