Psychopharmacology

https://link.springer.com/journal/213

List of Papers (Total 1,109)

Abelson Helper Integration Site 1 haplotypes and peripheral blood expression associates with lithium response and immunomodulation in bipolar patients

In bipolar disorder (BD), immunological factors play a role in the pathogenesis and treatment of the illness. Studies showed the potential link between Abelson Helper Integration Site 1 (AHI1) protein, behavioural changes and innate immunity regulation. An immunomodulatory effect was suggested for lithium, a mood stabilizer used in BD treatment. We hypothesized that AHI1 may be...

Effects of testosterone enanthate on aggression, risk-taking, competition, mood, and other cognitive domains during 28 days of severe energy deprivation

Behavioral effects of testosterone depend on dose, acute versus sustained formulation, duration of administration, personality, genetics, and endogenous levels of testosterone. There are also considerable differences between effects of endogenous and exogenous testosterone. This study was the secondary behavioral arm of a registered clinical trial designed to determine if...

The anterior insula and its projection to amygdala nuclei modulate the abstinence-exacerbated expression of conditioned place preference

Relapse into substance use is often triggered by exposure to drug-related environmental cues. The magnitude of drug seeking depends on the duration of abstinence, a phenomenon known as the incubation of drug craving. Clinical and preclinical research shows that the insular cortex is involved in substance use disorders and cue-induced drug seeking. However, the role of the insula...

Noradrenergic regulation of cue-guided decision making and impulsivity is doubly dissociable across frontal brain regions

Win-paired stimuli can promote risk taking in experimental gambling paradigms in both rats and humans. We previously demonstrated that atomoxetine, a noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor, and guanfacine, a selective α2A adrenergic receptor agonist, reduced risk taking on the cued rat gambling task (crGT), a rodent assay of risky choice in which wins are accompanied by salient cues...

Acute effects of outdoor and indoor walking on cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms and affective response during temporary smoking abstinence

Cigarette smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of premature death worldwide. There is evidence in the literature that brief exercise units indoors can improve well-being in temporarily abstinent smokers and reduce cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Because exercise in natural environments showed enhanced psychological effects, the aim of our study was to...

Supraphysiological testosterone levels from anabolic steroid use and reduced sensitivity to negative facial expressions in men

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are used to improve physical performance and appearance, but have been associated with deficits in social cognitive functioning. Approximately 30% of people who use AAS develop a dependence, increasing the risk for undesired effects. To assess the relationship between AAS use (current/previous), AAS dependence, and the ability to recognize...

Neural underpinnings of response inhibition in substance use disorders: weak meta-analytic evidence for a widely used construct

Substance use disorders (SUDs) rank among the most severely debilitating psychiatric conditions. Among others, decreased response inhibition capacities could make it more difficult for patients to abstain from drug use and maintain abstinence. However, meta-analyses on the neural basis of response inhibition in SUDs yielded conflicting results. In this study, we revisited the...

Liraglutide ameliorates delirium-like behaviors of aged mice undergoing cardiac surgery by mitigating microglia activation via promoting mitophagy

Postoperative delirium (POD) is a prevalent complication in cardiac surgery patients, particularly the elderly, with neuroinflammation posited as a crucial contributing factor. We investigated the prophylactic effects of liraglutide, a GLP-1 analog, on delirium-like behaviors in aged mice undergoing cardiac surgery and explored the underlying mechanisms focusing on...

Effect of dietary supplementation with Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 on seizure thresholds and antiseizure potency of sodium valproate in mice

Both animal and human studies, though limited, showed that multi-strain probiotic supplementation may reduce the number of seizures and/or seizure severity. Here, we evaluated the effect of a single strain probiotic supplementation on seizure susceptibility, antiseizure efficacy of sodium valproate, and several behavioral parameters in mice. Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 was...

Enhancement of peripheral fatty acyl ethanolamide signaling prevents stress-induced social avoidance and anxiety-like behaviors in male rats

Exposure to traumatic events can lead to alterations in social and anxiety-related behaviors. Emerging evidence suggests that peripheral host-defense processes are implicated in the expression of stress-induced behavioral responses and may be targeted to mitigate the negative sequalae of stress exposure. In this study, we used the peripherally restricted FAAH inhibitor URB937 to...

Effects of low doses of the novel dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) derivative BNN27 in rat models of anxiety

Several lines of evidence indicate that the neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is involved in anxiety. BNN27 is a new DHEA derivative lacking steroidogenic effects. The beneficial effects exerted by BNN27 in preclinical models of schizophrenia and memory disorders have been recently reported. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of this DHEA novel...

Oral ketamine may offer a solution to the ketamine conundrum

Ketamine has received considerable attention for its rapid and robust antidepressant response over the past decade. Current evidence, in clinical populations, predominantly relates to parenterally administered ketamine, which is reported to produce significant undesirable side effects, with additional concerns regarding long-term safety and abuse potential. Attempts to produce a...

Psychedelic use and psychiatric risks

Research on psychedelics has recently shown promising results in the treatment of various psychiatric disorders, but relatively little remains known about the psychiatric risks associated with naturalistic use of psychedelics. The objective of the current study was to investigate associations between naturalistic psychedelic use and psychiatric risks. Using a sample...

Effects of a dissociative drug on fronto-limbic resting-state functional connectivity in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized controlled pilot study

A subanesthetic dose of ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, elicits dissociation in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), who also often suffer from chronic dissociative symptoms in daily life. These debilitating symptoms have not only been linked to worse PTSD trajectories, but also to increased resting-state...

Venlafaxine’s therapeutic reference range in the treatment of depression revised: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor venlafaxine is among the most prescribed antidepressant drugs worldwide and, according to guidelines, its dose titration should be guided by drug-level monitoring of its active moiety (AM) which consists of venlafaxine (VEN) plus active metabolite O-desmethylvenlafaxine (ODV). This indication of therapeutic drug...

The effects of paranoia and dopamine on perception of cohesion and conspiracy: a pre-registered, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment

Paranoia is a common symptom of psychotic disorders but is also present on a spectrum of severity in the general population. Although paranoia is associated with an increased tendency to perceive cohesion and conspiracy within groups, the mechanistic basis of this variation remains unclear. One potential avenue involves the brain’s dopaminergic system, which is known to be...

Clozapine N-oxide, compound 21, and JHU37160 do not influence effortful reward-seeking behavior in mice

Clozapine N-oxide (CNO) has been developed as a ligand to selectively activate designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs). However, previous studies have revealed that peripherally injected CNO is reverse-metabolized into clozapine, which, in addition to activating DREADDs, acts as an antagonist at various neurotransmitter receptors, suggesting potential...

Voluntary wheel running during adolescence prevents the increase in ethanol intake induced by social defeat in male mice

Exposure to social defeat (SD) induces a depressive phenotype, increased ethanol seeking and consumption, accompanied by activation of the neuroinflammatory response. However, a resilient response can be potentiated through physical exercise in the form of voluntary wheel running (VWR) during or after exposure to social stress. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test whether...

MK-801 and cognitive functions: Investigating the behavioral effects of a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist

MK-801 (dizocilpine) is a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist originally explored for anticonvulsant potential. Despite its original purpose, its amnestic properties led to the development of pivotal models of various cognitive impairments widely employed in research and greatly impacting scientific progress. MK-801 offers several advantages; however, it also presents...

Group I and group II metabotropic glutamate receptors are upregulated in the synapses of infant rats prenatally exposed to valproic acid

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and restricted/stereotyped behavior. Prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA) is associated with an increased risk of developing ASD in humans and autistic-like behaviors in rodents. Increasing evidence indicates that dysfunctions of glutamate receptors at synapses are...

The effects of virtual reality environmental enrichments on craving to food in healthy volunteers

Environmental enrichment (EE) is a non-pharmacological approach that has been shown to be effective in reducing food-taking in rats. Studies in human volunteers are still in their infancy, given the difficulty to translate the complexity of EE in clinical practice. Virtual reality (VR) is a promising methodological approach, but no study has yet applied it to model and test EE in...

Trait sensitivity to positive feedback is a predisposing factor for several aspects of compulsive alcohol drinking in male rats: behavioural, physiological, and molecular correlates

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders and a leading cause of mortality worldwide. While the pathophysiology underlying AUD is relatively well known, the cognitive mechanisms of an individual’s susceptibility to the development of alcohol dependence remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the theoretical claim that sensitivity...

Facial expressions of pain: the role of the serotonergic system

Although interest in the neurobiology of facial communication of pain has increased over the last decades, little is known about which neurotransmitter systems might be involved in regulating facial expressions of pain. We aim to investigate whether the serotonergic system (5-HT), which has been implicated in various aspects of pain processing as well as in behavioral response...