The effect of psychedelic microdosing on animal behavior: A review with recommendations for the field.

Microdosing, the repeated use of psychedelic substances at low doses, is growing in popularity among recreational consumers. While this practice is associated with many benefits to mood, well-being and health, research in this area is in its early stages and predominantly centered on human applications. In this narrative review, we synthesize the findings from studies investigating the effects of microdosing on the behaviors of three animal species: rats, mice, and zebrafish.

Distinguishing Persistent Versus Episodic Clusters of At-Risk Respondents on the Problem Gambling Severity Index.

The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) is a popular tool for assessing past-year problems related to gambling. Multiple categorization schemes have been proposed, with scores 3-7 variously interpreted as reflecting a 'moderate' degree of problems. Crucially, it is possible to land in this Moderate-risk category by reporting one or two persistent problems, or up to seven problems that occur more sporadically.

Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression in Bipolar II Disorder.

Background: Bipolar II disorder (BD-II) is often associated with chronic and treatment resistant major depressive episodes. Psilocybin has shown promise for its rapid-acting antidepressant effects, though its impact on bipolar depression remains unexplored. In the present subgroup analysis of an already published trial on treatment-resistant depression (TRD), we aimed to preliminarily evaluate the safety and efficacy of psilocybin in patients with BD-II.

Reporting and Representation of Race and Ethnicity in Clinical Trials of Pharmacotherapy for Mental Disorders: A Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Representation of race and ethnicity in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is critical for understanding treatment efficacy across populations with different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Objective: To examine race and ethnicity representation and reporting across RCTs of pharmacotherapies for mental disorders.

Data Sources: PubMed (Medline), Embase (Ovid), APA PsycInfo, and Web of Science were searched until March 1, 2024, to retrieve network meta-analyses including RCTs of pharmacotherapies for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision mental disorders.

Machine Learning Models Can Predict Tinnitus and Noise-Induced Hearing Loss.

Objectives: Despite the extensive use of machine learning (ML) models in health sciences for outcome prediction and condition classification, their application in differentiating various types of auditory disorders remains limited. This study aimed to address this gap by evaluating the efficacy of five ML models in distinguishing (a) individuals with tinnitus from those without tinnitus and (b) noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) from age-related hearing loss (ARHL).

Design: We used data from a cross-sectional study of the Canadian population, which included audiologic and demographic information from 928 adults aged 30 to 100 years, diagnosed with either ARHL or NIHL due to long-term occupational noise exposure.

The psychometric properties of childhood physical and sexual abuse measures in two Canadian samples of youth and emerging adults.

Introduction: Child maltreatment is prevalent in Canada; how we measure it varies. The objective of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire Short Form (CEVQ-SF) physical and sexual abuse measures and of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 2-item sexual abuse measure, compared with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) in two samples of adolescents and young adults.

Methods: Retrospective, self-reported child abuse history was collected in the British Columbia Healthy Connections Project (BCHCP) and in the Well-Being and Experiences (WE) Study.

Role of ketamine in the treatment of substance use disorders: A systematic review.

Background And Aims: Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) involve diminished control, risky use, impaired social interactions, and physical dependence. Despite their global prevalence and burden, treatment options remain limited. Ketamine (KET), an NMDA receptor antagonist, may aid SUD treatment by modulating glutamatergic neurotransmission.

Interactions between early-life adversity, pandemic stress, and social support on psychiatric disorders in a nationally representative sample of Canadian adults.

Purpose: This study examined how pre-existing early-life adversity (ELA) and current social support interacted with COVID-specific pandemic stressors in relation to risk of psychiatric disorders in a nationally-representative sample of Canadian adults.

Methods: Participants (n = 9,409) were from the Mental Health and Access to Care Survey, a cross-sectional survey of Canadian adults during later stages of the COVID pandemic (March to July 2022). Measures included pandemic stressors (Statistics Canada), ELA (Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire), social support (Social Provisions Scale), and past 12-month psychiatric problems (WHO-CIDI).

Predicting Relapse of Depressive Episodes During Maintenance Treatment: The Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression (CAN-BIND) Wellness Monitoring in Major Depressive Disorder Study: Prédire la rechute d'épisodes dépressifs pendant le traitement d'entretien : Une étude de suivi du bien-être dans les troubles dépressifs majeurs du Réseau canadien d'intégration des biomarqueurs pour la dépression (CAN-BIND).

BackgroundRelapse rates in major depressive disorder (MDD) remain high even after treatment to remission. Identifying predictors of relapse is, therefore, crucial for improving maintenance strategies and preventing future episodes. Remote data collection and sensing technologies may allow for more comprehensive and longitudinal assessment of potential predictors.

Preoperative psychological health impacts pain and disability outcomes following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for cervical radiculopathy.

This study aimed to estimate the effects of preoperative psychological health on postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing surgery for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. This retrospective cohort study included data from patients enrolled in the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network who underwent anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for radiculopathy. Preoperative psychological health was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8), and depression and severe psychological symptomology were measured with the Mental Component Score of the Short Form Survey-12 (MCS).

Problematic anger in a treatment-seeking Canadian veteran population: Prevalence, assessment, and treatment implications.

Anger is a natural, adaptive emotion that is culturally accepted in military settings. Problematic anger (i.e.

Pharmacokinetics of Psilocybin: A Systematic Review.

Psilocybin has shown promise in therapeutic applications for mental disorders. Understanding the pharmacokinetics of psilocybin and its active metabolite psilocin is crucial for optimizing its clinical use and minimizing adverse effects. This systematic review involved a comprehensive search across MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, and Embase databases, from inception to December 2024, identifying original studies that investigated the pharmacokinetics of psilocybin.

Mapping of validated apathy scales onto the apathy diagnostic criteria for neurocognitive disorders.

Background: Diagnostic criteria for apathy in neurocognitive disorders (DCA-NCD) have recently been updated.

Objectives: We investigated whether validated scales measuring apathy severity capture the three dimensions of the DCA-NCD (diminished initiative, diminished interest, diminished emotional expression).

Measurements: Degree of mapping ("not at all", "weakly", or "strongly") between items on two commonly used apathy scales, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Clinician (NPI-C) apathy and Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES), with the DCA-NCD overall and its 3 dimensions was evaluated by survey.

Sex differences in clinical phenotypes of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.

Introduction: Higher male prevalence in sporadic behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) has been reported. We hypothesized differences in phenotypes between genetic and sporadic bvFTD females resulting in underdiagnosis of sporadic bvFTD females.

Methods: We included genetic and sporadic bvFTD patients from two multicenter cohorts.

The genetic landscape of sporadic adult-onset degenerative ataxia: a multi-modal genetic study of 377 consecutive patients from the longitudinal multi-centre SPORTAX cohort.

Background: While most sporadic adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases have only a minor monogenic component, given several recently identified late adult-onset ataxia genes, the genetic burden may be substantial in sporadic adult-onset ataxias. We report systematic mapping of the genetic landscape of sporadic adult-onset ataxia in a well-characterised, multi-centre cohort, combining several multi-modal genetic screening techniques, plus longitudinal natural history data.

Methods: Systematic clinico-genetic analysis of a prospective longitudinal multi-centre cohort of 377 consecutive patients with sporadic adult-onset ataxia (SPORTAX cohort), including clinically defined sporadic adult-onset ataxia of unknown aetiology (SAOA) (n = 229) and 'clinically probable multiple system atrophy of cerebellar type' (MSA-C) (n = 148).

The absence of Neuroligin-1 shapes wake/sleep architecture, rhythmic and arrhythmic activities of the electrocorticogram in female mice.

Associated to glutamatergic neurotransmission, Neuroligin-1 (NLGN1) is a synaptic adhesion molecule with roles in the regulation of behavioral states and cognitive function. It was shown to shape electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity during wakefulness and sleep in male mice, including aperiodic activity under baseline conditions. Given that the expression of Neuroligins (Nlgn) differs between sexes, we here aim to characterize the impact of the absence of NLGN1 on the wakefulness and sleep architecture, rhythmic and arrhythmic activity dynamics, and responses to sleep deprivation in female animals.

Cold memories control whole-body thermoregulatory responses.

Environmental thermal challenges trigger the brain to coordinate both autonomic and behavioural responses to maintain optimal body temperature. It is unknown how temperature information is precisely stored and retrieved in the brain and how it is converted into a physiological response. Here we investigated whether memories could control whole-body metabolism by training mice to remember a thermal challenge.

Midbrain and pallidal iron changes identify patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder and Parkinson's disease.

Idiopathic REM sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) is considered a prodromal form of Parkinson's Disease (PD), potentially exhibiting similar patterns of neurodegeneration, such as brain iron changes. We investigated midbrain and pallidal iron using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) in 16 iRBD patients, 30 PD patients, and 38 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) with 3T MRI. QSM revealed elevated substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) mean susceptibility in both iRBD and PD patient groups compared to HCs, though iRBD and PD QSM measures did not differ.

Cannabis Use and Misuse Following Recreational Cannabis Legalization.

Importance: An increasing number of jurisdictions have legalized recreational cannabis for adults, but most evaluations have used repeated cross-sectional designs, preventing examination of within-person and subgroup trajectories across legalization.

Objective: To examine changes in cannabis use and misuse in the 5 years following legalization in Canada both overall and by prelegalization cannabis use frequency using a longitudinal design.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This prospective cohort study included data from community-dwelling adults who participated in up to 11 biannual assessments from September 2018 to October 2023 in Ontario, Canada.

TRANSCENDENT (Transforming Research by Assessing Neuroinformatics across the Spectrum of Concussion by Embedding iNterdisciplinary Data-collection to Enable Novel Treatments): protocol for a prospective observational cohort study of concussion patients with embedded comparative effectiveness research within a network of learning health system concussion clinics in Canada.

Introduction: Concussion affects over 400 000 Canadians annually, with a range of causes and impacts on health-related quality of life. Research to date has disproportionately focused on athletes, military personnel and level I trauma centre patients, and may not be applicable to the broader community. The TRANSCENDENT Concussion Research Program aims to address patient- and clinician-identified research priorities, through the integration of clinical data from patients of all ages and injury mechanisms, patient-reported outcomes and objective biomarkers across factors of intersectionality.

Understanding mortality differentials of Black adults in Canada.

Background: It is not clear whether the increased mortality pattern observed in a prior analysis of the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohorts for HIV/AIDS, diabetes, prostate cancer, and uterine cancer among Black adults is reflected in incident hospitalization (a marker of severity) or the diagnosis of these diseases, nor is it clear whether disparities exist regarding early screening and survivability.

Methods: To understand the paths that contribute to differential mortality patterns, standard Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the incidence risk of diagnosis (uterine and prostate cancer) and incident hospitalization (HIV and diabetes) among 161,520 Black adults, compared with 6,866,070 White adults. Competing risk regression was used to evaluate the cumulative risk of death for the four disease outcomes since diagnosis or hospitalization.

Disease-modifying effects of TMEM106B in genetic frontotemporal dementia: a longitudinal GENFI study.

Common variants within TMEM106B are associated with risk for frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP-43 pathology (FTLD-TDP). The G allele of the top single nucleotide polymorphism, rs1990622, confers protection against FTLD-TDP, including genetic cases due to GRN mutations or C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansions. However, the effects of interaction between TMEM106B-rs1990622 and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) mutations on disease endophenotypes in genetic FTD are unknown.

Autism-related traits in myotonic dystrophy type 1 model mice are due to MBNL sequestration and RNA mis-splicing of autism-risk genes.

Genome-wide enrichment of gene-specific tandem repeat expansions has been linked to autism spectrum disorder. One such mutation is the CTG tandem repeat expansion in the 3' untranslated region of the DMPK gene, which is known to cause myotonic muscular dystrophy type 1. Although there is a clear clinical association between autism and myotonic dystrophy, the molecular basis for this connection remains unknown.

Catecholamine Dysregulation in Former American Football Players: Findings From the DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project.

Background And Objectives: Disturbances in brain catecholamine activity may be associated with symptoms after exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHIs) or related chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In this article, we studied CSF catecholamines in former professional and college American football players and examined the relationship with football proxies of RHI exposure, CTE probability, cognitive performance, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and parkinsonism.

Methods: In this observational cross-sectional study, we examined male former American football players, professional ("PRO") or college ("COL") level, and asymptomatic unexposed male ("UE") individuals from the DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project.