The Importance of Treatment Modality in Veterans with Opioid Use Disorder: Implications for Virtual Care.

This study examined treatment utilization across in-person and virtual treatment modalities in veterans who were on medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD; N = 139). Treatment records for veterans in addiction treatment on MOUD were examined for 3-months prior to telehealth conversions ("Pre-Telehealth," 12/02/2019-03/14/2020), 3-months during the initial telehealth transition ("Telehealth," 03/15/2020-06/30/2020) and 3-months during post-telehealth transition ("Re-Entry," 07/01/2020-10/01/2020). Analyses examined the relationship between treatment modality and demographic features, psychiatric comorbidities, treatment engagement, and illness severity as measured by psychiatric emergency room (PER) utilization.

Recent Advances in Prevention and Recovery in People with Schizophrenia and Related Disorders.

People with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders often experience a combination of psychological symptoms and functional impacts, such as difficulty in social relationships, finding or maintaining employment, and attending school [...

Group-Based Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERITg) and Its Relationship to Recovery-Oriented Beliefs in Serious Mental Illness.

Group-based Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERITg) is the group application of Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT), an evidence-based, integrative, recovery-oriented intervention to enhance insight and understanding of oneself and others in individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). MERITg may offer therapeutic interactions between participants that uniquely support recovery. The goal of the current study was to examine the relationship between MERITg participation and recovery-oriented beliefs.

Psychotherapy to emphasize self-directed recovery for persons with serious mental illness: Contributions from metacognitive reflection and insight therapy (MERIT).

Recovery from serious mental illness (SMI) is a complex process that can be supported by different levels of mental health care, for example, individual psychotherapy. Current individual evidence-based psychotherapy for persons with SMI is often focused on specific objective recovery outcomes, including symptom reduction and functional improvement, and requires a minimum level of insight. Less common but also important are broader, more flexible approaches that allow clients to explore their needs and challenges, without predetermined goals or a certain level of insight.

Preliminary study of the interactive effects of THC and ethanol on self-reported ability and simulated driving, subjective effects, and cardiovascular responses.

Rationale: Drug- and alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Compared to alcohol, less is known about the effects of cannabis on driving and even less about their combined effects.

Objective: To characterize the combined and separate effects of ethanol and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on perceived ability to drive, subjective effects, and simulated driving.

The Relationship Between Cannabinoids and Neural Oscillations: How Cannabis Disrupts Sensation, Perception, and Cognition.

Disruptions in neural oscillations are believed to be one critical mechanism by which cannabinoids, such as delta-9-tetrahyrdrocannabinol (THC; the primary psychoactive constituent of cannabis), perturbs brain function. Here we briefly review the role of synchronized neural activity, particularly in the gamma (30-80 Hz) and theta (4-7 Hz) frequency range, in sensation, perception, and cognition. This is followed by a review of clinical studies utilizing electroencephalography (EEG) which have demonstrated that both chronic and acute cannabinoid exposure disrupts neural oscillations in humans.

Translating an integrative metacognitive model of psychotherapy for serious mental illness into a group format: A pilot investigation on feasibility.

Metacognitive reflection and insight therapy (MERIT) is an one-on-one intervention that targets insight with the aim to help people with serious mental illness develop more integrated ideas about themselves and others in order to respond to their psychological and social challenges more adaptively. There is a growing body of evidence on MERIT's effectiveness. Considering the clinical demand for more cost-effective group psychotherapies, we modified the original individual MERIT format to a group-based intervention (MERITg) for application in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings.

The relationship between cannabis use and taurine: A MRS and metabolomics study.

Taurine is an essential amino acid. It has been shown to be neuroprotective including protecting against the neurotoxic effects of glutamate. The goal of the current study was to examine the relationship between CB use and taurine measured in brain using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and peripherally from a urine sample.

Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, Cannabidiol, and Acute Psychotomimetic States: A Balancing Act of the Principal Phyto-Cannabinoids on Human Brain and Behavior.

THC and CBD are the principal phyto-cannabinoids in the cannabis plant. The differential and possibly antagonistic effects of these compounds on specific brain and behavioral responses, and the mechanisms underlying their effects have generated extensive interest in pre-clinical and clinical neuroscience investigations. In this double-blind randomized placebo-controlled counterbalanced Human Laboratory Study, we examined the effects of three different dose ratios of CBD:THC (1:1, 2:1, and 3:1) on "neural noise," an electrophysiological biomarker of psychosis known to be sensitive to cannabinoids as well as subjective and psychotomimetic effects.

Differential Cognitive Performance in Females and Males with Regular Cannabis Use.

Objectives: Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that males and females may be differentially affected by cannabis use. This study evaluated the interaction of cannabis use and biological sex on cognition, and the association between observed cognitive deficits and features of cannabis use.

Methods: Cognitive measures were assessed in those with regular, ongoing, cannabis use (N = 40; 22 female) and non-using peers (N = 40; 23 female).

Treatment outcomes in individuals diagnosed with comorbid opioid use disorder and Posttraumatic stress disorder: A review.

Objectives: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a public health emergency. Evidence suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among individuals with OUD; however, few studies evaluate whether concurrent diagnoses affect treatment outcomes. This review examines the impact of concurrent diagnoses of OUD and PTSD on treatment outcomes.

Altered cerebellar-cortical resting-state functional connectivity in cannabis users.

Background: Cannabis use has been associated with abnormalities in cerebellar mediated motor and non-motor (i.e. cognition and personality) phenomena.

In an exploratory randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, psychoactive doses of intravenous delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol fail to produce antinociceptive effects in healthy human volunteers.

Rationale: Animal studies and anecdotal human reports suggest that cannabinoids have antinociceptive effects. Controlled human studies have produced mixed results.

Objectives: We sought to reduce existing variability by investigating the effects of intravenous delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in several pain paradigms within the same human subjects, addressing some of the limitations to the published literature.

Individuals with psychosis and a lifetime history of cannabis use show greater deficits in emotional experience compared to non-using peers.

While previous research suggests that active cannabis use is a barrier to the emotional experiences of anticipating pleasure and expressing emotion in early psychosis, the relationship between lifetime cannabis use, emotional experience and social function over time has been understudied. This study sought to characterize the influence of lifetime cannabis use on emotional experience in prolonged psychosis and the influence of the interaction of cannabis use and emotional expression on social function. Emotional expression, experience of pleasure in the moment, anticipatory anhedonia and social functioning were measured concurrently using the Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES), Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) and Social Functioning Scale (SFS), respectively.

Aberrant structural-functional coupling in adult cannabis users.

Cellular studies indicate that endocannabinoid type-1 retrograde signaling plays a major role in synaptic plasticity. Disruption of these processes by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) could produce alterations either in structural and functional brain connectivity or in their association in cannabis (CB) users. Graph theoretic structural and functional networks were generated with diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional imaging in 37 current CB users and 31 healthy non-users.

The effects of cannabidiol (CBD) on cognition and symptoms in outpatients with chronic schizophrenia a randomized placebo controlled trial.

Rationale: Preliminary evidence suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) may be effective in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders; however, CBD has never been evaluated for the treatment of cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia (CIAS).

Objective: This study compared the cognitive, symptomatic, and side effects of CBD versus placebo in a clinical trial.

Methods: This study was a 6-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel group, fixed-dose study of oral CBD (600 mg/day) or placebo augmentation in 36 stable antipsychotic-treated patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia.

Auditory feature perception and auditory hallucinatory experiences in schizophrenia spectrum disorder.

Schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SZ) is associated with deficits in auditory perception as well as auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). However, the relationship between auditory feature perception and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), one of the most commonly occurring symptoms in psychosis, has not been well characterized. This study evaluated perception of a broad range of auditory features in SZ and determined whether current AVHs relate to auditory feature perception.

Compared to high and low cannabis use, moderate use is associated with fewer cognitive deficits in psychosis.

Literature on the relationship of cannabis use and cognition in schizophrenia provides the paradoxical view that cannabis use is sometimes linked with less severe impairment in neurocognition. This paper explored the possibility that this is a reflection of a dose related response between lifetime cannabis use and two forms of cognition, neurocognition and metacognition, in schizophrenia. It was hypothesized that three groups of patients could be differentiated, those with (1) little to no cannabis use with poor levels of cognition, (2) moderate cannabis use and relatively better levels of cognition and (3) high cannabis use with relatively poorer levels of cognition.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) impairs encoding but not retrieval of verbal information.

Introduction: Cannabis and agonists of the brain cannabinoid receptor (CBR) produce acute memory impairments in humans. However, the extent to which cannabinoids impair the component processes of encoding and retrieval has not been established in humans. The objective of this analysis was to determine whether the administration of Δ-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis, impairs encoding and/or retrieval of verbal information.

The positive link between executive function and lifetime cannabis use in schizophrenia is not explained by current levels of superior social cognition.

There has been a growing link between a history of cannabis use and neurocognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia. Fewer neurocognitive deficits may be a marker of the superior social cognition needed to obtain illicit substances, or cannabis use may indicate a distinct path to schizophrenia with less neurocognitive vulnerability. This study sought to determine whether the relationship of cannabis use and executive function exists independently of social cognition.