Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
February 9, 2019
Lorenzo Moccia, A. Tofani, Marianna Mazza et al.
10 citations
A 23-year-old man developed a substance-induced psychotic disorder after intravenously injecting an unspecified amount of methoxetamine (MXE), a ketamine derivative hallucinogen. Clinically, he showed blunted affect, diminished social drive, loss of sense of purpose, and detachment from the environment. Psychometric tests revealed severe dissociation, lack of motivation, and mild impairments in verbal fluency, working memory, and attention. Brain scans using 18F-FDG PET/CT showed significantly reduced tracer uptake in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region critical for goal-oriented cognition, working memory, and attention. This case indicates that a single acute MXE intoxication can cause severe brain impairment.
Journal of clinical medicine
August 14, 2024
Lorenzo Moccia, Giovanni Bartolucci, Maria Pepe et al.
7 citations
In a small preliminary study of 18 patients with treatment-resistant depression given esketamine nasal spray for one month, those who responded to treatment (44.5% of the sample, defined by at least a 30% reduction in depression scores) had lower heart rate variability at baseline compared to non-responders. After one month of treatment, responders' heart rate variability increased. Baseline heart rate variability showed potential to discriminate between responders and non-responders. The findings suggest a link between esketamine treatment and changes in autonomic function measured by heart rate variability, but larger studies are needed to confirm heart rate variability as a predictor of treatment response.
Eating and weight disorders : EWD
February 1, 2022
Lorenzo Moccia, Eliana Conte, Marianna Ambrosecchia et al.
People with anorexia nervosa-restrictive subtype experience more anomalous self-experiences (ASEs), such as a disturbed sense of self, than healthy controls. These ASEs directly contribute to eating disorder severity, and this relationship is partly explained by an abnormal body image attitude. The findings suggest that a disturbed self-experience may underlie both body image distortions and eating disorder symptoms in this condition, pointing to the need for broader exploration of self-disorder as a transdiagnostic feature.