Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
7 papers
Researchers are testing several new and old approaches to treat addiction. The most attention is on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy — that is, giving a drug like psilocybin, MDMA, or ibogaine together with careful therapy — and on new drug compounds tested in animals. Some early clinical trials and many reviews call these approaches “promising,” but most evidence is still limited, mixed, or from small studies. At the same time, for some substances like methamphetamine there are no approved medicines that clearly reduce use. Animal studies and new chemical versions of old drugs show strong early results, but human safety and larger trials are still needed. Researchers also stress that the drug effect and the therapy around it (preparation, setting, and follow-up) both matter for how well treatment works.
This review looked at many studies about classic psychedelics (like psilocybin and LSD), MDMA, ketamine, and plant medicines (like ayahuasca). The authors explain how these drugs can change the brain’s wiring, calm inflammatory processes, and shift key brain chemicals. Those actions may help explain why small clinical trials and animal…
This 2018 review looked at animal and human studies of ketamine as a possible treatment for addiction. Early findings are promising: some studies found ketamine helped people stay abstinent from alcohol and heroin and reduced cocaine craving and use. However, the authors say the research is still new, many studies…
This review paper brings together animal and human studies to explain how alcohol and stress hormones may change the prefrontal cortex and the body’s stress system as drinking moves from casual use toward dependence. The authors say alcohol raises stress hormones (glucocorticoids) right away, and repeated heavy use can produce…
This review looks at what is known about the safety of repeated low-dose ketamine infusions for people with treatment-resistant depression and whether risks differ by sex and age (adolescence vs adulthood). A single low-dose infusion (commonly 0.5 mg/kg i.v.) can reduce depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts within hours and usually…
Researchers ran three focus groups with 14 people who have depression but had not tried ketamine. Participants saw ketamine as promising but were worried about its reputation as a party drug, possible long-term harms, and how it would be monitored. They wanted clear public information, better evidence about long-term safety,…
This systematic review looked at 16 studies of ketamine used to treat adults with depression, covering 2,174 patients. The authors found few clear cases of tolerance or dependence (four patients) and conclude that, overall, ketamine appears relatively safe for depression when given under medical supervision, with careful monitoring and dosing.…
This small, double-blind pilot trial gave 28 people with alcohol problems either a sublingual esketamine film (115.1 mg) or a vitamin C placebo while they did two weeks of daily mindfulness practice. Compared with placebo, esketamine increased people’s psychological engagement with the meditation, produced stronger mystical and dissociative experiences, and…
