Discover mental health
September 17, 2024
S K Spoelstra, R A Schoevers, S D Venema et al.
8 citations
Tobacco use disorder remains a major public health problem, and current cessation therapies have limited effectiveness. This review evaluated scientific evidence on psychedelics for smoking cessation by searching four databases up to March 2024. From 1073 articles, 8 publications met inclusion criteria, with 4 originating from a single study. Most studies focused on psilocybin (7 of 8), for which supportive evidence was suggested for treating tobacco use disorder. Research on ayahuasca, mescaline, peyote, LSD, LSA, and DMT was too limited to draw definitive conclusions. There is limited evidence that psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, may offer a potential avenue for combating tobacco use disorder, though more research is needed.
Discover mental health
April 17, 2024
Jon Berner, Animesh Acharjee
7 citations
Depression varies widely among individuals, making treatment selection and dosing difficult, especially for newer drugs like ketamine. In a pilot study of 29 patients with treatment-resistant depression, researchers analyzed over 300 metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid and used multivariate analysis to reduce the data to two main dimensions. The first dimension correlated age with levels of specific metabolites and depression and anxiety scores. The second dimension correlated autism scores, male gender, and cognitive fatigue with bipolar diagnosis, lithium use, and another metabolite disturbance. The findings suggest that complex, treatment-resistant depression can be mapped onto two pathophysiological domains, which may eventually guide personalized treatment choices.
Discover mental health
July 1, 2024
Keshav Juneja, Sabah Afroze, Zeel Goti et al.
6 citations
A systematic review examined the prevalence of ketamine abuse among people receiving ketamine treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). The review, covering studies published between 2021 and 2023, found that reported abuse rates vary widely, underscoring the need for standardized definitions and assessment tools. The authors developed a novel screening questionnaire and assessment algorithm to identify ketamine misuse in MDD patients undergoing treatment. This tool aims to help healthcare professionals detect and address misuse promptly, improving patient safety and outcomes.
Discover mental health
April 8, 2025
Isabel Wießner, Júlia Paula Souza, Marcelo Demarzo et al.
3 citations
Mindfulness training may reduce aberrant salience—the exaggerated significance attributed to perceived elements linked to psychotic experiences—while improving attention and well-being. In a pilot study of 21 adults completing an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Health Promotion course, mindful attention and decentering increased from before the course to after and at three months post-course. Aberrant salience showed mixed changes: a factor called Heightened Cognition increased immediately after the course, while Heightened Emotionality and total aberrant salience decreased later. Greater increases in mindful attention correlated with greater decreases in Heightened Emotionality. Qualitative reports indicated improved stress management and daily integration of mindfulness practices. The findings suggest mindfulness can modulate attentional processes and reduce aberrant salience, offering a potential pathway for interventions in psychosis.
Discover mental health
May 25, 2026
Filip Blazek, Klara Latalova, David Krahulik et al.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy and neurostimulation both aim to alter malfunctioning brain circuits in treatment-resistant psychiatric conditions. This Perspective identifies overlapping mechanisms—neuroplasticity and network reconfiguration—that underlie both approaches. It also considers ethical, regulatory, and practical obstacles to bringing these treatments into clinical use. By connecting neuroscience, psychiatry, and policy, the authors suggest ways to incorporate these novel interventions into evidence-based, circuit-oriented mental health care.