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Your question is very vague, and on a subject where a lot more research needs to be done, so forgive me but my answer is also going to probably be more vague and less definitive than you were hoping for.
Provigil, as far as I can tell is just another brand name of modafinil, which has some very clear advantages when it comes to increasing your concentration ...
8
Haldol (haloperidol) is mainly known for its antipsychotic properties to treat schizophrenia. It's an aged antipsychotic with a lot of side effects. Because of this, haloperidol is nowadays mostly replaced by the atypical antipsychotics, such as clozapine as first-line treatment.
Haloperidol's primary mechanism of action is believed to be related to its ...
7
How much sleep is needed for peak cognitive performance. If some were for >example wake up one morning at 12:30 pm would a sleeping pill help obtain >better sleep required for that performance the next morning at 08:00 am ?
It depends on what pharmacotherapies - per the clinical judgement of their treating physician - one may have consumed. Conceptually, we ...
7
Most of the 'true' hallucinogens are classified as 5HT2A agonists. 5HT2A is a postsynaptic serotonin receptor. Serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on the other hand act by increasing serotonin (5HT) levels in the brain, which in turn activates presynaptic 5HT1A receptors. Due to a continuous stimulation of these 5HT1A receptors they become ...
6
The phenomenon you are referring to is called synesthesia, which can be defined as (Sinke et al., 2012):
Synesthesia (Greek: syn = together; aesthesis = perception) is [...] a crossing of sensory perceptions, where stimulation within one sensory modality/stream leads to an internally generated perceptual experience of another sensory modality/stream.
...
6
There has been some preliminary research in the 1960's. From "The neurobiology of psychedelic drugs: implications for the treatment of mood disorders" by Vollenweider and Kometer:
Psycholytic therapy was introduced by Ronald Sandison and applied in
Europe at 18 treatment centres. In psycholytic therapy, low to
moderate doses of LSD (50–100 μg), ...
5
In a recent study, brain scans revealed that people under the influence of LSD experience images through information drawn from many parts of their brains, and not just the visual cortex at the back of the head that normally processes visual information. While under influence, regions normally segregated spoke to one another. Further images showed that other ...
5
"Depression" is a symptom or state of being, one that everyone can experience.
"Major Depressive Disorder," however, is a diagnosable medical disorder for many reasons. The following list is by no means exhaustive:
Major Depressive Disorder runs in families, and a genetic component is well established by family and twin studies.
Anyone who experiences a ...
5
Cannabis can cause an acute and short-lasting episode of anxiety, which often resembles a state of panic. When taken in high doses these effects can be intense and turn into attacks of panic and phobia. About 20–30% of users show brief acute anxiety reactions after smoking the drug. These symptoms tend to occur more in drug-naive subjects and in novel or ...
5
One of the very recently published studies linked to in the question, on the relationship between exogenous oxytocin administration and ability to accurately detect deception, instructed participants to self-administer oxytocin by nasal injection before evaluating contestants' decisions in videos of the Friend or Foe game show (Israel, Hart and Winter 2014). ...
answered May 12 '15 at 13:52
Christian Hummeluhr
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5
"The United Nations World Drug Report 2013 estimated that approximately 16.5 million people worldwide aged 15 or older used heroin or opium. Of these users, approximately 23% are estimated to develop opioid dependence."
This is from the introduction section of Hser, Y. I., Evans, E., Grella, C., Ling, W., & Anglin, D. (2015). Long-term course of opioid ...
4
The current understanding, I believe, is that symptomatic psychiatric disorders may or may not be lifelong according to many factors, but that the susceptibility to them probably is lifelong. Some examples. . .
Substance-induced psychosis (which is pretty much what it sounds like) is often though not always temporary.
Certain types and locations of brain ...
4
You've received a few great comments from our neuroscience-savvy users that indicate ways in which this question can be construed as particularly challenging or maybe even unanswerable. However, I think there's a much more basic and limited understanding of your question that takes into account your self-professed unfamiliarity with neuropharmacology and ...
4
The main cell of the brain is the neuron. The neuron has a semipermeable membrane that under specific circumstances lets potassium through. Another common cell is the glia cell, which only has potassium channels. Potassium, K+, has a positive charge and it can pass across the membrane at specific channels, depending on their state (open/closed). The channels ...
4
Short answer
Brain zaps are a colloquial term for certain symptoms of antidepressant discontinuation syndrome.
Background
'Brain zaps' are associated with sudden shakes, or vibrations, tremors, jolts, electric shocks, or 'zaps' of the head and/or brain. As SydneyMaples rightfully commented, these are scientifically recognized as symptoms of
...
4
Question 1: I am unaware of any studies directly addressing the epidemiology of self-medication with cannabis in cases of treatment-resistant depression (it seems like that is what you are asking about). However, there are several lines of therapy that have demonstrated effectiveness in depression beyond the first line antidepressants (CANMAT Depression ...
4
As @user30133 pointed out,
Not everyone who feels depressed some time [is] diagnosed with depression. Depression is not simply feeling sad. It has specific diagnosis criteria which you can find in [the] DSM
The DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, of which the most recent edition is the 5th edition (DSM-5) which also links to ...
4
Can drugs cause a psychosis or only unlock it
Drugs can cause acute psychosis, but are not associated with a precipitation of a chronic psychotic state. Animal studies have shown that various drugs (including LSD, ketamine and amphetamine) can induce acute psychosis in genetically non-disposed animals (Ham et al., 2017). However, in general, drugs do not ...
4
IQ in ADHD sufferers indeed increases with the treatment of stimulants, such as methylphenidate (Meyes et al., 1994). This is thought to rely on the attention-narrowing effect of stimulants, i.e., they cause the
easily distracted ADHD child to focus better on the IQ task (Aman, 1996).
It is an interesting question indeed whether such an effect also plays ...
3
Not everyone who feels depressed some time diagnosed with depression. Depression is not simply feeling sad. It has specific diagnosis criteria which you can find in DSM-V. Diagnosis of a mental disorder is needed to help the patient, not to label them or to reenforce any idea. That's why in psychiatry, the term 'diases' is not used. Moreover, with the same ...
3
It seems that it is possible.
Norman Sussman, MD (2017) discusses pharmacological and non-pharmacological causes of treatment resistance.
Treatment resistance is addressed in the latest edition of the [Kaplan and Sadock's] Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry as follows: “Some patients fail to respond to repeated trials of medication. No single factor ...
3
Broadband cortical desynchronization "begins at the cellular level with
excitation of layer 5 pyramidal neurons, and extends to the macroscopic
level with cortical desynchronization and decreased
brain network integrity."
"Stimulation of the 5-HT2A receptor has been shown to
enhance spontaneous EPSPs/EPSCs (excitatory postsynaptic potential /
excitatory ...
3
According to this systemic review (:the most objective kind of evidence come from reviews of studies not primary sources:) 1 in 7 schizophrenia patients met criteria for recovery.
Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814844
A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Recovery in Schizophrenia:
Conclusions: Based on the best available data, approximately,...
3
Schizophrenia has no cure, which means you cannot "force" it to stop. However, not every case is lifelong by nature.
Information on schizophrenia prognosis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prognosis_of_schizophrenia
"A clinical study using strict recovery criteria (concurrent remission
of positive and negative symptoms and adequate social and vocational
...
3
Short answer
The current understanding is that depression is related to a neurochemical imbalance in the depressed brain. Pharmacological treatment to shift and correct that imbalance may therefore be an effective approach.
Background
Basically you are saying depression is a state of mind and should be treated with counselling rather than tagging a person ...
3
Short answer
All neuropsychopharmaceuticals, including the tryptamines, are potentially neurotoxic depending on the dose at which they are ingested.
Background
Neurotoxicity is, arguaby, a broad definition. According to the NIH, neurotoxicity can be caused by processes ranging from radiation to transplants, and from chemical toxins to cosmetics. NIH ...
3
The internet is flooded with anecdotal reports of 'Tian' relating to the drug's addictive potential after recreational use, for example here, here and here. Often, though, these reports come from people already addicted to other illicit drugs. Notably, tianeptine is used for rehab purposes, just like the partial opioid agonist naloxone. So anecdotal reports ...
3
The first line treatment for stuttering (I'm a stutterer myself) is speech therapy. Such therapies generally focus on helping stutterers to learn ways to minimize stuttering when they speak, such as by speaking more slowly, regulating their breathing, or gradually progressing from single-syllable responses to longer words and more complex sentences. Most of ...
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