Dear Editor, Tourette syndrome (TS) is characterized by chronic motor and vocal tics. In the ‘60s, neuroleptics have started to be used on TS and became the most efficient medications. Most used neuroleptics which have been reported in controlled studies or case reports are haloperidol, pimozide, sulpiride, risperidone, olanzapine and ziprazidone.1 Since then, typical neuroleptics have been dec...

Hallucinogens are a loosely defined group of compounds including LSD, N,N-dimethyltryptamines, mescaline, psilocybin/psilocin, and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methamphetamine (DOM), which can evoke intense visual emotional experiences. We witnessing renaissance research interest in hallucinogens, driven by increasing awareness their psychotherapeutic potential. As such, we now present narrative review the ...

One of the most enigmatic problems in neurobiology is the apparent disconnect between rapid effects of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) on extracellular serotonin (5-HT) levels and the slow onset of the therapeutic antidepressant effects of these drugs. Indeed, SSRIs increase extracellular 5-HT levels, but it is clear that subsequent neuroadaptations underlie the behavioral effects of these...

Parkinson's disease has been traditionally thought of as a dopaminergic disease in which cells of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) die. However, accumulating evidence implies an important role for the serotonergic system in Parkinson's disease in general and in physiological responses to levodopa therapy, the first line of treatment. We use a mathematical model to investigate the conseq...

The present study examines the effects of serotonin (5-HT) 1A receptor ligands on humoral immune response in two rat lines selected for over 75 generations for the enhancement or elimination of aggression. Activation of presynaptic 5-HT1A receptors with a low dose of the selective 5HT1A receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT (0.1 mg/kg) or the blockade of postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors with the antagonist W...

BACKGROUND Aripiprazole is a dopamine D2 receptor partial agonist with partial agonist activity at serotonin 5HT1A receptors and antagonist activity at 5HT2A receptors. This multicenter trial examined the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of aripiprazole in patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. METHODS In this 4-week double-blind study, 404 patients w...

Frontal cortical regions are activated by food-associated stimuli, and this activation appears to be dysregulated in individuals with eating disorders. Nevertheless, frontal control of basic unconditioned feeding responses remains poorly understood. Here we show that hyperphagia can be driven by μ-opioid receptor stimulation in restricted regions of ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and ...

Dorsal root-evoked stimulation of sensory afferents in the hemisected in vitro rat spinal cord produces reflex output, recorded on the ventral roots. Transient spinal 5-HT2C receptor activation induces a long-lasting facilitation of these reflexes (LLFR) by largely unknown mechanisms (Machacek et al., 2001). Two Sprague-Dawley substrains were used to characterize network properties involved in ...

In the sixth abdominal ganglion (sixth AG) of the crayfish, two photosensitive neurons are located and have been identified as caudal photoreceptors (CPRs). We have expanded our investigation on the role of 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) as a modulator of the spontaneous and light-induced activity of the CPR. We located, by using immunocytochemistry, neurons in the sixth AG that contain the 5HT1A r...