Explore the vast range of titles available.

This book features easily accessible information on indications, contraindications, dosing, drug interactions, clinical monitoring, and adverse effects for more than 130 medications, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, nutraceuticals/phytoceuticals, and more.

With examinations of 19 new psychiatric drugs, 19 new forms of previously available drugs, and a host of new medical agents, this third edition of the Clinical Manual of Psychopharmacology in the Medically Ill has been updated to include medical and psychiatric drugs that have become available since the publication of the second edition in 2017, as well as recent relevant randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Boasting all the rigor that characterized the preceding editions, every chapter in this new volume has been reviewed and revised by experts—including 11 new authors. For 15 categories of medical disorders and specialty areas that include cardiovascular disorders, oncology, obstetrics and gynecology, and substance use disorders, the book examines • Key differential diagnostic considerations • The evidence for the efficacy of psychiatric drugs in each disorder • Disease-specific side effects of psychiatric drugs • Neuropsychiatric side effects of drugs for each medical disorder • Disease-specific alterations in pharmacokinetics • Drug-drug interactions Patients with medical and psychiatric comorbidity have more functional impairment, disability days, emergency department use, and rehospitalization, as well as higher medical care costs. By examining the intersection of psychiatric and medical illness, and offering easily referenced key points for each chapter, this new edition prepares both mental health practitioners and primary care physicians and internists to more safely and effectively work with patients who have psychiatric and medical illness.

While many other books have focused on what to prescribe for given conditions, this volume is more concerned with how to prescribe: how to talk to patients about medications, how to understand the cultural and social factors that affect how both clinicians and patients relate to medication, and how to build trust in the relationship.

Cannabis sativa is an aromatic annual flowering plant with several botanical varieties, used for different purposes, like the production of fibers, the production of oil from the seeds, and especially for recreational or medical purposes. Phytocannabinoids (terpenophenolic compounds derived from the plant), include the well-known psychoactive cannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, and many non-psychoactive cannabinoids, like cannabidiol. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) comprises of endocannabinoid ligands, enzymes for synthesis and degradation of such ligands, and receptors. This system is widely distributed in the gastrointestinal tract, where phytocannabinoids exert potent effects, particularly under pathological (i.e., inflammatory) conditions. Herein, we will first look at the hemp plant as a possible source of new functional food ingredients and nutraceuticals that might be eventually useful to treat or even prevent gastrointestinal conditions. Subsequently, we will briefly describe the ECS and the general pharmacology of phytocannabinoids. Finally, we will revise the available data showing that non-psychoactive phytocannabinoids, particularly cannabidiol, may be useful to treat different disorders and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. With the increasing interest in the development of functional foods for a healthy life, the non-psychoactive phytocannabinoids are hoped to find a place as nutraceuticals and food ingredients also for a healthy gastrointestinal tract function.

ADB-FUBINACA and AMB-FUBINACA are two synthetic indazole-derived cannabinoid receptor agonists, up to 140- and 85-fold more potent, respectively, than trans-∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC), the main psychoactive compound of cannabis. Synthesised in 2009 as a pharmaceutical drug candidate, the recreational use of ADB-FUBINACA was first reported in 2013 in Japan, with fatal cases being described in 2015. ADB-FUBINACA is one of the most apprehended and consumed synthetic cannabinoid (SC), following AMB-FUBINACA, which emerged in 2014 as a drug of abuse and has since been responsible for several intoxication and death outbreaks. Here, we critically review the physicochemical properties, detection methods, prevalence, biological effects, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of both drugs. When smoked, these SCs produce almost immediate effects (about 10 to 15 s after use) that last up to 60 min. They are rapidly and extensively metabolised, being the O-demethylated metabolite of AMB-FUBINACA, 2-(1-(4-fluorobenzyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide)-3-methylbutanoic acid, the main excreted in urine, while for ADB-FUBINACA the main biomarkers are the hydroxdimethylpropyl ADB-FUBINACA, hydroxydehydrodimethylpropyl ADB-FUBINACA and hydroxylindazole ADB-FUBINACA. ADB-FUBINACA and AMB-FUBINACA display full agonism of the CB1 receptor, this being responsible for their cardiovascular and neurological effects (e.g., altered perception, agitation, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, loss of consciousness and memory, chest pain, hypertension, tachycardia, seizures). This review highlights the urgent requirement for additional studies on the toxicokinetic properties of AMB-FUBINACA and ADB-FUBINACA, as this is imperative to improve the methods for detecting and quantifying these drugs and to determine the best exposure markers in the various biological matrices. Furthermore, it stresses the need for clinicians and pathologists involved in the management of these intoxications to describe their findings in the scientific literature, thus assisting in the risk assessment and treatment of the harmful effects of these drugs in future medical and forensic investigations.

Introduction and objective: Psychoactive substances intoxication among children and adolescents still poses a significant problem. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess paediatric patients intoxicated with psychoactive substances, who were admitted to a children’s hospital and their history of comorbidities. Materials and methods: This retrospective study assessed medical records of paediatric patients hospitalised in the Provincial Specialist Children’s Hospital in Olsztyn in the period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018. The study included a group of 303 patients aged 0–18 years, diagnosed with intoxication with psychoactive substances. Results: In the analysed period, 303 paediatric patients were admitted due to intoxication with psychoactive substances, accounting for 0.45% of all hospitalised patients. The mean age of the patients was 14.83 ± 2.88 years. Among them there were 158 (52.15%) girls and 145 (47.85%) boys. Conclusions: Among children, poisoning occurs most often outside home (party, public place, plot, park). Medications and alcohol are the most common psychoactive substances used by adolescents. In the analysed period, poisonings in young people between 15 and 16 years of age were most often caused by alcohol consumption, while poisoning with other psychoactive substances most often occurred between 17 and 18 years of age. Patients with one comorbid disease were found more likely to use psychoactive substances compared to others, while patients with more than one comorbid disease use psychoactive substances and mixed drugs. Patients without comorbidities are more likely to consume alcohol.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is currently the most rapid growing neurodegenerative disease and over the past generation, its global burden has more than doubled. The onset of PD can arise due to environmental, sporadic or genetic factors. Nevertheless, most PD cases have an unknown etiology. Chemicals, such as the anthropogenic pollutant 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) and amphetamine-type stimulants, have been associated with the onset of PD. Conversely, cannabinoids have been associated with the treatment of the symptoms’. PD and medical cannabis is currently under the spotlight, and research to find its benefits on PD is on-going worldwide. However, the described clinical applications and safety of pharmacotherapy with cannabis products are yet to be fully supported by scientific evidence. Furthermore, the novel psychoactive substances are currently a popular alternative to classical drugs of abuse, representing an unknown health hazard for young adults who may develop PD later in their lifetime. This review addresses the neurotoxic and neuroprotective impact of illicit substance consumption in PD, presenting clinical evidence and molecular and cellular mechanisms of this association. This research area is utterly important for contemporary society since illicit drugs’ legalization is under discussion which may have consequences both for the onset of PD and for the treatment of its symptoms.

Abstract Modern psychedelic research remains in an early phase, and the eventual introduction of psychedelics into clinical practice remains in doubt. In this piece, we discuss the role of blinding and expectancy in psychedelic trials, and place this in a broader historical and contemporary context of blinding in trials across the rest of healthcare. We suggest that premature and uncritical promotion (‘hype’) of psychedelics as medicines is not only misleading, but also directly influences participant expectancy in ongoing psychedelic trials. We argue that although psychedelic trials are likely to significantly overestimate treatment effects by design due to unblinding and expectancy effects, this is not a unique situation. Placebo-controlled RCTs are not a perfect fit for all therapeutics, and problems in blinding should not automatically disqualify medications from licencing decisions. We suggest that simple practical measures may be (and indeed already are) taken in psychedelic trials to partially mitigate the effects of expectancy and unblinding, such as independent raters and active placebos. We briefly suggest other alternative trial methodologies which could be used to bolster RCT results, such as naturalistic studies. We conclude that the results of contemporary placebo-controlled RCTs of psychedelics should neither be dismissed due to imperfections in design, nor should early data be taken as firm evidence of effectiveness.