Faculty Bibliography

After a hiatus of some 40 years, clinical research has resumed on the use of classic hallucinogens to treat addiction. Following completion of a small open-label feasibility study, we are currently conducting a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted treatment of alcohol use disorder. Although treatment effects cannot be analyzed until the study is complete, descriptive case studies provide a useful window into the therapeutic process of psychedelic-assisted treatment of addiction. Here we describe treatment trajectories of three participants in the ongoing trial to illustrate the range of experiences and persisting effects of psilocybin treatment. Although it is difficult to generalize from a few cases, several qualitative conclusions can be drawn from the data presented here. Although participants often find it difficult to describe much of their psilocybin experience, pivotal moments tend to be individualized, extremely vivid, and memorable. Often, the qualitative content extends beyond the clinical problem that is being addressed. The participants discussed in this paper experienced acute and lasting alterations in their perceptions of self, in the quality of their baseline consciousness, and in their relationship with alcohol and drinking. In these cases, experiences of catharsis, forgiveness, self-compassion, and love were at least as salient as classic mystical content. Finally, feelings of increased "spaciousness" or mindfulness, and increased control over choices and behavior were reported following the drug administration sessions. Ultimately, psilocybin-assisted treatment appears to elicit experiences that are extremely variable, yet seem to meet the particular needs of the individual.

Limited research has examined the relation between exposure to stressors and internalizing symptoms among Latino adolescents, including factors that account for this relation. This study examined whether sleep played a role in the relation between exposure to neighborhood- (i.e., neighborhood disadvantage) and individual-level (i.e., negative life events) stressors and symptoms of anxiety and depression among a sample of 144 low-income, Latino adolescents (54% males, mean age = 16.25, SD = 1.46) attending a charter high school in a large, Midwestern city. The bias corrected bootstrap method was used to evaluate indirect effects. Significant findings indicated an indirect effect via sleep problems in the link between negative life events and anxiety. Alternative models were also explored. Results suggest that sleep problems are important to consider for interventions among Latino youth, particularly those exposed to neighborhood and individual stressors, as this may also have implications for reducing internalizing symptoms among this population. (PsycINFO Database Record

The purpose of this article is to determine the risk of schizophrenia in offspring of women exposed to x-ray radiation during pregnancy. The risk of schizophrenia was evaluated using cohort data collected in The Jerusalem Perinatal Study. The cohort of 92,408 births from 1964 to 1976 was linked to Israel's National Psychiatric Registry of all individuals hospitalized for psychiatric conditions. Cross-tabulations were analyzed for development of schizophrenia in offspring of mothers who were exposed to an x-ray procedure during the first four months of pregnancy. Relative risks (RRs) were estimated using proportional hazards models, adjusted for male sex, paternal age, family psychiatric history, and social class. The adjusted RRs for schizophrenia spectrum associated with maternal x-rays in months 3 and 4 were, respectively, 2.97 (0.94-9.35) and 1.23 (0.39-3.87). Among 80 cases with narrowly defined schizophrenia (ICD-10 = F20) maternal x-rays in months 3 and 4 were associated, respectively, with adjusted RRs of 3.08 (0.75-12.6, based on 2 cases), and 2.04 (0.64-6.46, 3 cases). Offspring of mothers exposed to x-ray radiation during the third and fourth months of pregnancy may have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

The placenta adapts to maternal environment and its alterations may have a lasting impact on child's temperament development. Prenatal stress has been linked to both a downregulation of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene expression in the placenta and to difficult temperament. Capitalizing on an ongoing longitudinal study, we analysed data from 95 mother-child dyads to investigate whether MAOA mediates the association between prenatal stress and infant temperament. Prenatal stress was defined as exposure to Superstorm Sandy (Sandy) during pregnancy. Infant temperament was measured by Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised. MAOA gene expression was quantified in placenta tissue. The Smiling and Laughter subscale score was independently associated with Sandy exposure and MAOA placental gene expression. Mediation analysis confirmed that MAOA expression partially mediated the relationship between Sandy and Smiling and Laughter subscale, suggesting that in utero exposure to Sandy could induce lower frequency of smiling and laughter via downregulation of placental MAOA gene expression. These effects could compromise optimal temperamental trajectory and contribute to risk for psychological problems. Placental epigenetic markers can contribute to a multidimensional model of early intervention for high-risk children.

Successful social interaction relies on the accurate decoding of other peoples' emotional signals, and their contextual integration. However, little is known about how contextual odors may lead to modulation of cortical processing in response to facial expressions. We investigated how unpleasant and pleasant contextual background odors affected emotion perception and cortical event-related potential (ERP) responses to pictures of faces expressing happy, neutral and disgusted facial expressions. Faces were, regardless of expression, rated more positively in the pleasant odor condition and more negatively in the unpleasant odor condition. Faces were overall rated as more emotionally arousing in the presence of an odor, irrespective of its valence. Contextual odors also interacted with facial expressions, such that happy faces were rated as especially non-arousing in the unpleasant odor condition. The early, face-sensitive N170 ERP component also displayed an interaction effect. Here, disgusted faces were affected by the odor context such that the N170 revealed a relatively larger negativity in the context of a pleasant odor compared with an unpleasant odor. There were no odor effects on the responses to faces in other measured ERP components (P1, VPP, P2, and LPP). These results suggest that odors bias socioemotional perception early stages of the visual processing stream. However, effects may vary across emotional expressions and measurements.

More than one in every four women in the world experience sexual violence (SV) in their lifetime, most often as teenagers and young adults. These traumatic experiences leave memories in the brain, which are difficult if not impossible to forget. We asked whether women with SV history experience stronger memories of their most stressful life event than women without SV history and if so, whether strength relates to ruminative and trauma-related thoughts. Using the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ), women with SV history (n = 64) reported this memory as especially strong (p < 0.001), remembering more sensory and contextual details, compared to women without SV history (n = 119). They further considered the event a significant part of their personal life story. The strength of the memory was highly correlated with posttraumatic cognitions and ruminative thoughts, as well as symptoms of depression and anxiety (p's < 0.001, n = 183). A third (33%) of the women with SV history were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but PTSD alone did not account for the increase in memory strength (p's < 0.001). These data suggest that the experience of SV increases the strength of stressful autobiographical memories, which are then reexperienced in everyday life during posttraumatic and ruminative thoughts. We propose that the repeated rehearsal of vivid stressful life memories generates more trauma memories in the brain, making the experience of SV even more difficult to forget.