Fear and anxiety perform essential protective roles, yet when they become dysregulated, they can trap trauma survivors in persistent hypervigilance and distress. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) manifests as intrusive memories, avoidance, and heightened arousal long after the precipitating event. Although current pharmacotherapies – including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, adrenergic blockers, benzodiazepines, and atypical antipsychotics – provide relief for some, many patients co...

Serotonergic psychedelics, such as lysergic acid diethylamide, and psilocybin, and the entactogen 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine exhibit agonist activity at the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2B receptor, a signalling pathway known to mechanistically mediate drug-induced valvular heart disease. This systematic review evaluates whether chronic or repeated use of psychedelics and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine may contribute to valvular heart disease through sustained 5-hydroxytryptamine 2B receptor ac...

Polypharmacy has an important role in psychiatry, as the kidney function can be affected by medication. Risperidone is metabolized hepatically to 9-hydroxyrisperidone and excreted renally. Here, we study how serum concentrations of risperidone, 9-hydroxyrisperidone and active moiety (risperidone+9-hydroxyrisperidone) are related to impairment of kidney function and potentially interacting comedications that affect renal functions ((1) nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, (2) angiotensin-convert...

Bipolar disorder is a chronic psychiatric condition that requires long-term treatment. Lithium remains the gold standard for mood stabilization; yet, its therapeutic response is highly variable and unpredictable due to the lack of reliable biomarkers. As lithium may exert its effect through interactions with neuronal membranes, particularly their lipid composition, red blood cell membranes have been proposed as a peripheral model to investigate this relationship. We conducted a monocentric, cros...