psychopharmacological treatment of anxiety

Background: Mental health diagnoses can co-occur with complex medical illness in pediatric patients. Pediatricians may not feel comfortable with managing psychopharmacology for patients and access to child psychiatrists can be limited. Palliative care (PC) providers follow patients with serious illness longitudinally to address burdensome symptoms that affect quality of life and may be responsible for evaluation and treatment of mental health concerns; however, education in managing psychologic distress for pediatric palliative care (PPC) providers is limited...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that can occur in individuals who have experienced trauma. Current treatments for PTSD, typically serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have limited effectiveness for patients and often cause serious adverse effects. Therefore, a novel class of treatment with better pharmacological profile is necessary. D-Pinitol has been reported to be effective for depression and anxiety disorders, but there are no reports associated with PTSD. In the present study, we investigated the effects of D-pinitol in a mouse model of PTSD induced by a single prolonged stress (SPS) protocol...

INTRODUCTION: Perceptions of cannabis as a potential medical treatment for mood and anxiety disorders have been increasing in the context of legalizations, availability, and medical cannabis programs, though current evidence predominately indicates risks and negative effects of cannabis use (CU) on mental health outcomes. This study aims to understand motivations, perceptions, effects, and patterns of CU in individuals with mood and anxiety disorders. METHODS: Thirty-six adult patients diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder who were currently using cannabis completed an in-depth qualitative interview on individual motivations, perceptions, experiences, effects, and patterns of their CU...

RATIONALE: Ketamine produces dissociative, psychomimetic, anxiolytic, antidepressant, and anesthetic effects in a dose dependent manner. It has a complex mechanism of action that involve alterations in other glutamate receptors. The metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) has been investigated in relation to the psychotic and anesthetic properties of ketamine, while its role in mediating the therapeutic effects of ketamine remains unknown. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the role of mGluR5 on the antidepressant, anxiolytic and fear memory-related effects of ketamine in adult male Wistar rats...

Major depressive disorder is a multifactorial disorder that originates from a complex web of variables and overlaps with similar disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety). As such, animal models should account for the considerable symptom overlap between psychiatric disorders. We sought to extend the findings of behavioral assays that encompass both anxiety and stress/depression components. To do so, we have focused on digging behavior, a compulsive-like behavior displayed in mice, in which we employed behavioral and pharmacological stressors to reduce digging behaviors, producing a depression-like state...

BACKGROUND: Research on long-term pharmacotherapy for trauma-affected refugees is scarce. The purpose of this follow-up study of a randomised trial was to investigate the effects of sertraline compared to venlafaxine in combination with psychotherapy, 6 and 18 months after end of trial. METHOD: The primary outcome was PTSD symptoms, measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). The secondary outcomes included: Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25), somatisation items of the Symptoms Checklist-90 (SCL), pain on a visual analogue scale, well-being on the WHO-5, Sheehan Disability Scale, Hamilton Depression and Anxiety scales and Global Assessment of Functioning...

Dementia, with loss of memory, cognitive abilities, and independent daily functioning, is increasing worldwide, related to an aging population. Currently, there is no curative treatment for dementia. Treatment of the frequently occurring behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) is partially effective and associated with significant side effects. Cannabinoids are lipophilic molecules acting on the CB1 end CB2 receptors, essential for main biological processes such as sleep, appetite, memory, and pain...

BACKGROUND: Evidence has increased in recent years regarding the potential for ketamine to serve as a novel treatment option for a range of conditions, particularly depression (unipolar and bipolar). However, research regarding ketamine as a potential therapeutic for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is lacking, despite high overlap with bipolar depression and theoretical foundations for its use. CASE PRESENTATION: A 29-year-old man with bipolar disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder, type 2 diabetes, presented with mood swings and suicidal thoughts, and anger outbursts occurring daily...

BACKGROUND: Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation (SD) can induce manic-like behaviors in rodents. On the other hand, lithium, as one of the oldest drugs used in neuropsychiatric disorders, is still one of the best drugs for the treatment and control of bipolar disorder. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of chronic short-term REM SD in the induction of manic-like behaviors in female rats. METHODS: The rats were exposed to REM SD for 14 days (6 hours/day)...

Although an increasing number of patients suffering from mental illnesses self-medicate with cannabis , current knowledge about the efficacy and safety of cannabis -based medicine in psychiatry is still extremely limited. So far, no cannabis -based finished product has been approved for the treatment of a mental illness. There is increasing evidence that cannabinoids may improve symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Tourette syndrome (TS), anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to surveys, patients often use cannabinoids to improve mood, sleep, and symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)...

PURPOSE/BACKGROUND: Anxiety symptoms in major depressive disorder (MDD) are frequent, and they decrease response to antidepressant treatment (ADT), and affect patient functioning. This post hoc analysis examined the efficacy of adjunctive brexpiprazole on individual depressive symptoms and functioning in patients with MDD with anxious distress. METHODS/PROCEDURES: Data were included from three 6-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of adjunctive brexpiprazole in patients with MDD and inadequate response to ADTs (ClinicalTrials...

INTRODUCTION: The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-10 (HSCL-10) is a self-report inventory of anxiety and depression symptoms that may assist clinicians in screening for clinical conditions among patients with substance use disorder (SUD). We examined the HSCL-10 as a screening tool for anxiety and depressive disorders within a general population of SUD inpatients. METHODS: We used data from a cohort study of 611 SUD inpatients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted, with and without covariates, to evaluate the potential of the HSCL-10 as a screening tool...

BACKGROUND: Community-based care (CBC), where care is delivered outside of the traditional health facility setting, has been proposed to narrow the mental health (MH) and substance use (SU) treatment gap in Africa. OBJECTIVE: This scoping review aims to comprehensively summarize CBC models addressing adolescent and adult MH (depression, anxiety, trauma, suicidal behavior) and (non-tobacco) SU problems in Africa. METHODS: We searched PsycINFO, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, and Medline Ovid...

(1) Background Pharmacological treatment for psychiatric disorders has shown to only be effective in about one-third of patients, as it is associated with frequent treatment failure, often because of side effects, and a long process of trial-and-error pharmacotherapy until an effective and tolerable treatment is found. This notion emphasizes the urgency for a personalized medicine approach in psychiatry. (2) Methods This prospective patient- and rater-blinded, randomized, controlled study will investigate the effect of dose-adjustment of antidepressants escitalopram and sertraline or antipsychotics risperidone and aripiprazole according to the latest state-of-the-art international dosing recommendations for CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 metabolizer status in patients with mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders...

PURPOSE: To investigate how commonly adolescent psychiatric outpatients with symptoms of depression and anxiety report having been subjected to sexual harassment, and to explore how symptoms and functional abilities differ between adolescent psychiatric outpatients with symptoms of depression and anxiety who do report and those who do not report having been subjected to sexual harassment. METHODS: Swedish adolescent psychiatric outpatients with symptoms of depression or anxiety ( n  = 324; 66 boys and 258 girls, aged 12-19 years, M  = 15...

BACKGROUND: The endocannabinoid system plays a key role in the control of many emotional-correlated reactions such as stress, depressed mood, and anxiety. Moreover, citicoline has neuroprotective properties and indicates beneficial effects in the treatment of depressive problems. Acute restraint stress (ARS) is an experimental model used for the induction of rodent models of depression. OBJECTIVE: This research was designed to assess the effects of intracerebroventricular (i...

Introduction: Escitalopram is an effective and generally well-tolerated antidepressant, but children of parents with bipolar disorder (BD) may be at increased risk for adverse events associated with antidepressants, including increased irritability, restlessness, impulsivity, and manic symptoms. This risk may be influenced by polymorphisms in genes encoding cytochrome P450 enzymes ( CYP2C19 or CYP2D6 ), the serotonin transporter ( SLC6A4 ), and the serotonin receptor 2A subtype ( HTR2A ). We explored whether gene-drug interactions influence the emergence of adverse events in depressed and/or anxious youth with a family history of BD...

The interest in new 5-HT₆ agents stems from their ability to modulate cognition processing, food motivation and anxiety-like behaviors. While these findings come primarily from rodent studies, no studies on primates have been published. Furthermore, our understanding of where and how they act in the brain remains limited. Although the striatum is involved in all of these processes and expresses the highest levels of 5-HT₆ receptors, few studies have focused on it. We thus hypothesized that 5-HT6 receptor blockade would influence food motivation and modulate behavioral expression in non-human primates through striatal 5-HT6 receptors...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The use of the recreational drug gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) has increased over the past decade, concomitantly leading to a higher incidence of GHB use disorder. Evidence-based treatment interventions are hardly available and cognitive effects of long-term GHB use remain elusive. In order to study the development of GUD and the causal effects of chronic GHB consumption, a GHB self-administration model is required. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Long Evans rats had access to GHB in their home cage according to a two-bottle choice procedure for 3 months...

Purpose: Social support is important for maintaining and restoring psychological well-being but the effects of individual psychotherapies on perceived social support are not well known. In this analysis of secondary outcomes from a randomized clinical study, we compared the effects of long-term psychotherapy and two short-term psychotherapies on social support during a 5-year follow-up. Materials and methods: Altogether 326 adult outpatients suffering from depressive and/or anxiety disorders were randomly assigned to long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (LPP, n  = 126), short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (SPP, n  = 101) and solution-focused therapy (SFT, n  = 97)...