Published in Psychopharmacology
After alcohol ingestion, the brain partly switches from consumption of glucose to consumption of the alcohol metabolite acetate. In heavy drinkers, the switch persists after abrupt abstinence, leading to the hypothesis that the resting brain may be "starved" when acetate levels suddenly drop during abstinence, despite normal blood glucose, contribu...
Published in Psychopharmacology
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in social communication and interaction, repetitive stereotyped behaviors, and cognitive impairments. Curcumin has been indicated to be neuroprotective against neurological and psychological disorders. However, the role of curcumin in autist...
Published in Psychopharmacology
The adenosine A(2A) receptor forms a mutually inhibitory heteromer with the dopamine D2 receptor, and A(2A) agonists decrease D2 signaling. This study analyzed whether an adenosine A(2A) agonist would alleviate deficits in sensorimotor gating and increases in cyclic-AMP response element binding protein (CREB) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the n...
Published in Psychopharmacology
Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability worldwide and is likely precipitated by chronic stress. Although many antidepressants are currently available, these drugs require weeks to months of daily administration before reduction of symptoms occurs and many patients remain treatment-resistant despite several courses of treatment. T...
Published in Psychopharmacology
Previous research has shown that physically salient and reward-related distractors can automatically capture attention and eye gaze in a visual search task, even though participants are motivated to ignore these stimuli. To examine whether an acute, low dose of alcohol would influence involuntary attentional capture by stimuli signalling reward. Pa...
Published in Psychopharmacology
Co-use of cannabis and nicotine is common among adolescents/young adults and is associated with poorer psychological and physical outcomes, compared with single substance use. Little is known about the impact of co-use on the developing brain. Preliminary investigation of the effects of nicotine on white matter (WM) cerebral blood flow (CBF) in ado...
Published in Psychopharmacology
The role of Olanzapine therapeutic drug monitoring is controversial. The present study explores the associations of Olanzapine plasma concentrations with clinical response and metabolic side effects in first episode psychosis (FEP) after 2 months of treatment. Forty-seven patients were included. Improvement in clinical symptomatology was assessed u...
Published in Psychopharmacology
There is a need to develop animal models of schizophrenia-like behaviors that have both construct and predictive validity. Recently, a neonatal phencyclidine (PCP) and post-weaning social isolation dual-hit model was developed; however, its face and predictive validities need to be further investigated. The aims of this study were to extend the cha...
Published in Psychopharmacology
The abused potential of some anesthetics has been debated. Measurement of locomotor sensitization is a better way to detect the neurobehavioral plasticity of addiction. The present study aims to explore whether propofol and dexmedetomidine are capable of inducing locomotor sensitization. Male Wistar rats (250-300 g) were the subjects (n = 8 for eac...
Published in Psychopharmacology
Epidemiological data indicate that drivers testing positive for an opioid drug are twice as likely to cause a fatal car crash; however, there are limited controlled data available. The primary aim of this study was to assess the effects of a therapeutic dose range of oxycodone alone and in combination with alcohol on simulated driving performance. ...
