Frontier mental health research: psychedelics & drug studies

Efficacy and Safety of Flexibly Dosed Esketamine Nasal Spray Combined With a Newly Initiated Oral Antidepressant in Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Randomized Double-Blind Active-Controlled Study

Vanina Popova, Ella Daly, Madhukar H. Trivedi, Kimberly Cooper, Rosanne Lane, Pilar Lim, et al.

American Journal of Psychiatry • Summary & key facts • 2019 • 839 citations

Researchers tested a nasal spray form of esketamine together with a newly started oral antidepressant in adults whose depression had not improved after trying at least two antidepressants. Over four weeks, people who got esketamine plus a new antidepressant had faster and larger drops in depression symptoms than those who…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Treatment of Major Depression Tryptophan and brain disorders Ketamine

Core symptoms of major depressive disorder: relevance to diagnosis and treatment

Sidney H Kennedy

PubMed Central (PMC) • Summary & key facts • 2008 • 370 citations

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is defined without assuming a single cause and has two main symptoms: depressed mood and loss of interest or pleasure. The paper says we should also pay more attention to fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety, thinking (cognitive) problems, and sexual problems when diagnosing and judging treatment. Some…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Mental Health Research Topics Treatment of Major Depression

Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults

Valentin Magnon, Fréderic Dutheil, Guillaume T. Vallet

PubMed • Summary & key facts • 2021 • 124 citations

This clinical trial tested one session of deep and slow breathing (DSB) in 47 adults (22 older, 25 younger). After the single DSB session, high-frequency (HF) heart rate variability increased and self-reported state anxiety went down in both age groups. The rise in HF power was significantly larger in older…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Behavioral Health and Interventions Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

Current Status of Cognitive Remediation for Psychiatric Disorders: A Review

Kim, Eun Jin, Bahk, Yong-Chun, Oh, Hyeonju, et al.

www.frontiersin.org • Summary & key facts • 2018 • 119 citations

This review looks at cognitive remediation (CR), which are training methods meant to improve thinking skills in people with psychiatric disorders. It notes that thinking problems are common and hurt daily life. Over the past 50 years the evidence for CR has grown, with the clearest support for treating schizophrenia…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Mental Health Research Topics Schizophrenia research and treatment

Absolute and relative outcomes of psychotherapies for eight mental disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Pim Cuijpers, Clara Miguel, Marketa Ciharova, Mathias Harrer, Djordje Basic, Ioana A Cristea, et al.

PubMed Central (PMC) • Summary & key facts • 2024 • 107 citations

This large review combined 441 randomized trials with 33,881 patients to measure how many people show a clear response to psychotherapy across eight mental disorders. Response was defined as at least a 50% reduction in symptoms from before to after treatment. Pooled response rates were modest (for example, about 42%…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments Treatment of Major Depression

Ketamine treatment for refractory anxiety: A systematic review

Jamie L. Tully, Amelia D. Dahlén, Connor J. Haggarty, Helgi B. Schiöth, Samantha J. Brooks

British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology • Summary & key facts • 2022 • 84 citations

This systematic review looked at clinical studies of ketamine for people whose anxiety did not get better with standard treatments. The authors found early signs that single doses of ketamine can reduce anxiety quickly, but the benefits are often temporary (typically lasting days to about a week). The existing studies…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Treatment of Major Depression Tryptophan and brain disorders

Links among emotional awareness, somatic awareness and autonomic homeostatic processing

Kanbara, Kenji, Fukunaga, Mikihiko

SpringerLink • Summary & key facts • 2016 • 77 citations

This review looks at research on emotional awareness, awareness of bodily signals (interoception), and the body's autonomic homeostatic processes. The authors say limbic brain systems link these processes, that measures of autonomic activity and stress reactivity relate to both kinds of awareness, and that problems in autonomic function may be…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Mental Health and Psychiatry Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Pharmacologic Treatment of Dimensional Anxious Depression

Dawn F. Ionescu, Mark J. Niciu, Erica M. Richards, Carlos A. Zarate

The Primary Care Companion For CNS Disorders • Summary & key facts • 2014 • 54 citations

The authors reviewed 31 studies (from a search of 304 articles published 1949–Feb 2013) of adults with depression plus measured anxiety. They report that SSRIs, SNRIs, and TCAs often reduce symptoms in this “anxious depression” group, but these patients are less likely to keep their improvement or reach lasting remission…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Treatment of Major Depression

Clinical Manifestations of Body Memories: The Impact of Past Bodily Experiences on Mental Health

Antje Gentsch, Esther Kuehn

Brain Sciences • Summary & key facts • 2022 • 32 citations

The authors review research and suggest that negative "body memories" — past bodily experiences of touch, pain, movement, or inner signals that are stored in memory — may help explain why some mental health problems have strong physical or bodily symptoms. They bring together findings from neuroscience, clinical cases, and…

Action Observation and Synchronization Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Interoceptive hunger, eating attitudes and beliefs

Richard J. Stevenson, Brayson J. Hill, Alannah Hughes, Madeline Wright, Johanna Bartlett, Supreet Saluja, et al.

Frontiers in Psychology • Summary & key facts • 2023 • 21 citations

Researchers surveyed mainly young university students about how hunger feels just before a main meal and then retested many about 1 month later. They found hunger sensations fit 11 different dimensions, that people differ in which sensations they report, and that those reports were stable over time. Although there was…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Interoceptive awareness in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Jan R. Wiersema, Elke Godefroid

PLoS ONE • Summary & key facts • 2018 • 20 citations

This 2018 study asked whether adults with ADHD can notice their bodily signals (interoceptive awareness). The researchers compared 24 adults with ADHD to 23 adults without ADHD. They used a heartbeat perception task (an objective test) and a questionnaire (a subjective test). Both groups performed similarly on both measures. The…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Biobehavioral approach to distinguishing panic symptoms from medical illness

Tunnell, Natalie C., Corner, Sarah E., Roque, Andres D., et al.

www.frontiersin.org • Summary & key facts • 2024 • 5 citations

This narrative review examines how panic disorder causes sudden, distressing body symptoms that can look like real medical problems. It focuses on six common symptoms (non-cardiac chest pain, palpitations, dyspnea, dizziness, abdominal distress, and paresthesia), reviews medical illnesses that can occur with or mimic panic (including long COVID), and argues…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments