CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets - CNS & Neurological Disorders) - Volume 13, Issue 6, 2014

Despite grief being a universal experience and the increased scientific attention paid to grief and bereavement in recent years, studies that seek to better understand the role of the neurological aspects of grief are still scarce. We found 5 studies that discussed the relationship between the neurological aspects of grief due to the death of a loved one. All studies showed an activation of common areas, i.e., the anterior cingul Read More

Suicide is considered a deliberate act initiated and concluded by a person with full knowledge or expectation of a fatal result, and one of the main symptoms of depression. An individual’s conscious and excessive ingestion of a damaging substance is also considered to be an attempted suicide. Despite limited knowledge of caffeine abuse, deaths from overdose of caffeine have been reported in the literature. Thus, this study aim Read More

Non-invasive stimulation of the human brain to improve depressive symptoms is increasingly finding its way in clinical settings as a viable form of somatic treatment. Following successful modulation of neural excitability with subsequent antidepressant effects, neural polarization by administrating weak direct currents to the scalp has gained renewed interest. A new wave of basic and clinical studies seems to undersc Read More

Anxiety and depression are pathologies that affect human beings in many aspects of life, including social life, productivity and health. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a constituent non-psychotomimetic of Cannabis sativa with great psychiatric potential, including uses as an antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like compound. The aim of this study is to review studies of animal models using CBD as an anxiolytic-like and antidepressant-li Read More

This article considered already existing studies about Deep Brain Stimulation in Mood and Anxiety Disorders. In particular, articles regarding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Major Depression were mostly analyzed, due to the lack of researches about other types of Mood and Anxiety Disorders. We have concentrated on the target areas where Deep Brain Stimulation was most commonly applied, and on the effects this Read More

Electroencephalography has been used to establish the relationship among cortical activity, exercise and mood, such as asymmetry, absolute and relative power. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the influence of cortical activity on mood state induced by exercise. The Preferred Reporting Items in Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses was followed in this study. The studies were retrieved from MEDLIN Read More

The observation that nicotine modulates negative affectivity and has a mood enhancing effect mainly derives from studies conducted in the general population and in clinical samples, mostly in nicotine-deprived subjects. It has been explained by the so called deprivation-reversal hypothesis (i.e., nicotine modulates affect because it alleviates withdrawal symptoms). However, experimental studies suggest that nicotine might modul Read More

Chest pain may be due benign diseases but often suggests an association with coronary artery disease, which justifies a quick search for medical care. However, some people have anxiety disorder with symptoms that resemble clearly an acute coronary syndrome. More specifically, during a panic attack an abrupt feeling of fear accompanied by symptoms such as breathlessness, palpitations and chest pain, makes patients be Read More

Anxiety and depression are the most frequently diagnosed psychological diseases showing a high co-morbidity. They have a severe impact on the lives of the persons concerned. Many meta-analytical studies suggested a positive anxiolytic and depression-reducing effect of exercise programs. The aim of the present article is to synthesize metaanalyses on the effects of exercise on anxiety and depression and to describe averag Read More

Both, psychosocial stress and exercise in the past have been used as stressors to elevate saliva cortisol and change state anxiety levels. In the present study, high-school students at the age of 14 were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: (1) an exercise group (n = 18), that was running 15 minutes at a medium intensity level of 65-75% HRmax, (2) a psychosocial stress group (n = 19), and (3) a control group Read More

Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by irrational fear and avoidance of specific things or situations, interfering significantly with the patients’ daily life. Treatment for the disorder consists of both pharmacological and psychological approaches, mainly cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Neuroimaging techniques have been used in an attempt to improve our understanding of the neurobiology of SP and of the effect Read More

Depression, the most prevalent psychiatric disorder, has a lifelong risk of 20% and is related to high rates of death among the patients. Thus, this study aims to conduct a systematic review of changes in executive functions of adult patients diagnosed with depression. We found 1381 articles; however, only 28 were selected and recovered. The inclusion criteria was the assessment of executive functions with at least one neuro Read More

Behcet's syndrome (BD) is a controversial, chronic, and episodic condition that is autoimmune in origin and causes systemic vasculitis in the arteries and genital veins. BD is consistently associated with depression, with an incidence of 86% upon the first appearance of symptoms and disorders of the disease. However, few studies have looked at depression and other psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, in the context Read More

One of the most influential theories has conceived unexpected panic attack (PA) as a primal defensive reaction to threat within the internal milieu of the body. This theory is based on findings suggesting the involvement of dysfunctional respiratory regulation and/or abnormally sensitive central neural network of carbon dioxide (CO2)/hydrogen ion (H+) chemoreception in PA. Thus, unexpected PA may be related to phylogenetica Read More

The aim of this review was to summarize the recent evidences regarding the pharmacological treatment of panic disorder (PD). The authors performed a review of the literature regarding the pharmacological treatment of PD since the year 2000. The research done in the last decade brought strong evidences of effectiveness for paroxetine, venlafaxine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, citalopram, fluoxetine, clonazepam, and t Read More

Current treatments of depression include psychological, pharmacological and physical approaches. Pharmacological interventions to treat depression have previously focused on modifying dysfunctional neurotransmitter systems. Overall, these treatments have demonstrated an ability to manage major depression but otucomes continue to be poor in many patients, especially those with long term illness or with previous Read More

Panic disorder (PD) is an anxiety disorder that is highly disruptive to the patient’s life and needs new options for effective treatments. In this case report, we present an application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in a refractory patient resistant to cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy who was treated with a combined protocol of rTMS with a sequential stimulation of right and left d Read More