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.
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 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…
Researchers reviewed about 300 studies and closely read 29 that tested how ketamine changes the brain at the molecular level in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They looked at short-term changes that happen while the drug is active and longer-term changes that can last after the drug is gone. Short-term changes…
