Leveraging family and caregiver support in psychedelic-assisted therapy: considerations for the treatment of adolescents.

Background: Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is gaining recognition as a promising intervention for treatment-refractory mental health conditions in adults. While interest in its applications for adolescents is growing, critical gaps remain in understanding safe and effective delivery of PAT to this vulnerable population, including implications for caregiver/family (used interchangeably) involvement in the intervention. Caregivers play a crucial role in adolescent mental health treatment by supporting recovery and disrupting illness-maintaining patterns.

Quantifying abnormal emotion processing: A novel computational assessment method and application in schizophrenia.

Abnormal emotion processing is a core feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) that encompasses multiple operations. While deficits in some areas have been well-characterized, we understand less about abnormalities in the emotion processing that happens through language, which is highly relevant for social life. Here, we introduce a novel method using deep learning to estimate emotion processing rapidly from spoken language, testing this approach in male-identified patients with SSDs (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 51).

Effects of Ayahuasca on Gratitude and Relationships with Nature: A Prospective, Naturalistic Study.

Qualitative studies and anecdotal reports suggest that experiences with ayahuasca, a psychedelic brew found in Central and South America, may be followed by individuals enduringly feeling more grateful and connected to nature. Yet, to date, these changes have been understudied. Here, participants ( = 54) completed validated surveys related to gratitude, nature relatedness, and nature appreciation one-week before, one-week after, and one-month after attending an ayahuasca retreat center.

Intranasal Oxytocin May Improve High-Level Social Cognition in Schizophrenia, But Not Social Cognition or Neurocognition in General: A Multilevel Bayesian Meta-analysis.

While there is growing interest in the potential for intranasal oxytocin (IN-OT) to improve social cognition and neurocognition (ie, nonsocial cognition) in schizophrenia, the extant literature has been mixed. Here, we perform a Bayesian meta-analysis of the efficacy of IN-OT to improve areas of social and neurocognition in schizophrenia. A systematic search of original research publications identified randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of IN-OT as a treatment for social and neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia for inclusion.

Intranasal Oxytocin Selectively Modulates Social Perception, Craving, and Approach Behavior in Subjects With Alcohol Use Disorder.

Objectives: A pharmacotherapy that both improves social abilities and promotes abstinence may be particularly helpful for the treatment of alcohol use disorder. Recent clinical and preclinical evidence suggests that oxytocin has prosocial and antiaddiction effects. We performed a pilot, laboratory-based, preclinical trial of oxytocin in subjects with alcohol abuse (as per Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 Edition criteria) to evaluate therapeutic potential and assess tolerability.

The effects of intranasal oxytocin in opioid-dependent individuals and healthy control subjects: a pilot study.

Rationale: There has been an explosion of research on the potential benefits of the social neuropeptide oxytocin for a number of mental disorders including substance use disorders. Recent evidence suggests that intranasal oxytocin has both direct anti-addiction effects and pro-social effects that may facilitate engagement in psychosocial treatment for substance use disorders.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the tolerability of intranasal oxytocin and its effects on heroin craving, implicit association with heroin and social perceptual ability in opioid-dependent patients receiving opioid replacement therapy (ORT) and healthy control participants.

Impaired Recognition and Regulation of Disgust Is Associated with Distinct but Partially Overlapping Patterns of Decreased Gray Matter Volume in the Ventroanterior Insula.

Background: The ventroanterior insula is implicated in the experience, expression, and recognition of disgust; however, whether this brain region is required for recognizing disgust or regulating disgusting behaviors remains unknown.

Methods: We examined the brain correlates of the presence of disgusting behavior and impaired recognition of disgust using voxel-based morphometry in a sample of 305 patients with heterogeneous patterns of neurodegeneration. Permutation-based analyses were used to determine regions of decreased gray matter volume at a significance level p <= .

Satiety-related hormonal dysregulation in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Objective: To investigate whether patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) have dysregulation in satiety-related hormonal signaling using a laboratory-based case-control study.

Methods: Fifty-four participants (19 patients with bvFTD, 17 patients with Alzheimer disease dementia, and 18 healthy normal controls [NCs]) were recruited from a tertiary-care dementia clinic. During a standardized breakfast, blood was drawn before, during, and after the breakfast protocol to quantify levels of peripheral satiety-related hormones (ghrelin, cortisol, insulin, leptin, and peptide YY) and glucose.

Schizophrenia or neurodegenerative disease prodrome? Outcome of a first psychotic episode in a 35-year-old woman.

Background: Patients with early onset neurodegenerative disease can present with a clinical syndrome that overlaps with schizophrenia, and it is not uncommon for these patients to undergo long-term care in psychiatric settings rather than receiving more appropriate care by neurologists specializing in their disease.

Case Report: A 35-year old woman who presented with new-onset delusions, eating abnormalities, disorganized behavior, lack of insight, disinhibition, and stereotypical motor behaviors was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized. Later she was found to have a MAPT tau S356T mutation and a focal pattern of brain atrophy consistent with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

BDNF serum concentrations show no relationship with diagnostic group or medication status in neurodegenerative disease.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a growth factor implicated in neuronal survival. Studies have reported altered BDNF serum concentrations in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, these studies have been inconsistent.

The diagnostic challenge of psychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative disease: rates of and risk factors for prior psychiatric diagnosis in patients with early neurodegenerative disease.

Objective: To identify rates of and risk factors for psychiatric diagnosis preceding the diagnosis of neurodegenerative disease.

Method: Systematic, retrospective, blinded chart review was performed of 252 patients with a neurodegenerative disease diagnosis seen in our specialty clinic between 1999 and 2008. Neurodegenerative disease diagnoses included behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (n = 69), semantic dementia (n = 41), and progressive nonfluent aphasia (n = 17) (all meeting Neary research criteria); Alzheimer's disease (n = 65) (National Institute of Neurologic and Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association research criteria); corticobasal degeneration (n = 25) (Boxer research criteria); progressive supranuclear palsy (n = 15) (Litvan research criteria); and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 20) (El Escorial research criteria).