Psychedelic Institute of Mental Health & Family Therapy
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Spotlight: LSD: Mechanisms and relevance to the treatment of depression (Bouloufa, et al, 2025)

"Psychedelics may be a potential alternative therapy for treatment-resistant depression. LSD has a complex mode of action which is not yet fully understood. Low doses of LSD can drastically increase brain plasticity."
Michael DeMarco, PhD

by Michael DeMarco, PhD

LSD: Mechanisms and relevance to the treatment of depression

"Psychedelic research is expanding rapidly, driven by increasing public and scientific interest in fast-acting antidepressants (Papakostas and Ionescu, 2015, Hoyer, 2025), a growing number of clinical trials worldwide, and recent regulatory progress. Accordingly, a main aim of this narrative review is to offer a comprehensive overview of LSD’s neurobiological mechanisms, its potential antidepressant and anxiolytic effects, and associated safety considerations."

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Spotlight: Modulation of functional network co-activation pattern dynamics following ketamine treatment in major depression (Taraku, et al, 2025)

"findings suggest ketamine modulates brain network dynamics which may normalize dynamic patterns seen in TRD at baseline toward patterns seen in controls. Changes in Salience Network state dynamics may correspond to improvements in ruminative symptoms following ketamine therapy."

Spotlight: Resilience and Brain Changes in Long-Term Ayahuasca Users: Insights From Psychometric and fMRI Pattern Recognition (Ramos, et al, 2025)

"results suggest that long-term Ayahuasca use may be linked to lasting changes in emotional regulation and brain function, potentially supporting psychological well-being."

Spotlight: Efficacy and safety of ketamine maintenance therapy in treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review of treatment protocols and clinical outcomes (Al-Garni, et al, 2025)

"Concurrent psychotherapy improved treatment maintenance. Adverse events were generally mild to moderate... Ketamine maintenance therapy shows promise as a treatment option for TRD, with regular dosing schedules and early intervention associated with optimal outcomes."

Spotlight: Antidepressants and the endogenous opioid system (Fricker, et al, 2025)

"A growing body of evidence links the opioid system w/ major depressive disorder... two different widely used antidepressants, tianeptine & ketamine, both interact with MOR; tianeptine as a full agonist, ketamine as a positive allosteric modulator. Both produce antidepressant effects within days."
Real-world clinical data on the long-term effectiveness and safety of generic racemic ketamine treatment (Massaneda-Tuneu, et al, 2025)

Spotlight: Real-world clinical data on the long-term effectiveness and safety of generic racemic ketamine treatment (Massaneda-Tuneu, et al, 2025)

"Findings suggested that racemic ketamine (including by mouth), when appropriately dosed and administered within a structured clinical and safety monitoring framework, is both effective, safe and well-tolerated over a 6-month treatment period."

Spotlight: Synaptic priming: A framework for pharmacotherapy in depression (Brown, et al, 2025)

"we describe how the indirect relationship between ketamine's pharmacokinetics and sustained antidepressant pharmacodynamics reveals a dosing model (primer pharmacology) that can be harnessed to fine-tune therapeutic outcomes."
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