Amygdala: a brain structure responsible for processing and storing emotional responses.
Anhedonia: inability to experience pleasure or enjoy pleasant things, and loss of interest and satisfaction in activities that used to be enjoyed. It is a very common symptom of depression.
Antagonist: compound capable of decreasing the activity of another.
Behavioral therapy: behavioral therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, attempt to replace negative thoughts and habits with positive ones.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): a protein formed in the brain highly linked to brain development, plasticity, and the maintenance of healthy neurons.
Ceiling effect: in research, the ceiling effect is when there is an upper limit to a survey or test, and a large percentage of the participants score around this limit. It’s opposite is the floor effect.
Comorbid disorder: when two or more disorders or diseases occur in the same person.Craving: intense or urgent desire to consume a drug or perform an obsessive behavior.
Double-blind: A double-blind clinical trial is a randomized trial in which neither the researcher nor the participant knows which intervention or treatment they will receive.
Esketamine or S-ketamine: drug modified from ketamine to be administered intranasally. Its most common use is for the treatment of depression, but evidence points to ketamine being more effective.
Etiology: etiology is the cause or causes of a disease.
Gender perspective: gender perspective is a conceptual tool that allows us to question and evaluate differences between men and women, taking into account social and cultural factors, as well as biological ones.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): a disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable, and irrational worry.
Glutamate: an amino acid, a building block for protein synthesis. It is also the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain, involved in motor and cognitive systems, as well as neuroplasticity.
Habenula: a brain structure found in the diencephalon. It is closely linked to the regulation of the emotional response in the treatment of chronic pain and depression.
Individual differences: an area of study in psychology that investigates why people are different from one another, for example in personality, motivation, intelligence, etc.
Isomer: isomers have the same chemical formula but with a different arrangement of atoms within the molecules, thus having different physical and chemical properties.
Ketamine: analgesic with dissociative properties. Its rapid action in the treatment of depression, suicidal ideation, and other disorders, has aroused a deep interest in the investigation of its medical and therapeutic potential.
Limbic system: aset of brain structures, evolutionarily some of the oldest parts of the brain, which is known for its role in memory, emotions and learning, among other things.
MDMA, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine: a compound discovered in 1912 by Antön Kolisch, frequently used recreationally but with medicinal and therapeutic potential under study, especially for PTSD.
Meta-analysis: a specific question is chosen and an exhaustive investigation is carried out on the studies published on the subject, synthesizing, analyzing and evaluating the results obtained through various statistical methods.
Midazolam: benzodiazepine used as an anxiolytic or pain reliever.
Neuroplasticity: the potential of the nervous system to remove and create synaptic connections in response to new information.
Neuroreceptors: channels that open or close in response to the binding of a chemical messenger – usually a specific one.
Neurotransmitter: chemical messengers that carry signals between neurons and other cells in the body.
Placebo: the placebo effect refers to an improvement in symptoms through the belief that they are receiving an active medication. It is usually a substance without pharmacological activity (such as a saline solution). Placebos are often used in clinical trials to test the effectiveness of a drug.
Psychoeducation: through psychoeducation, the patient and his family receive information about their disorder and its respective treatment and prognosis, based on scientific evidence and personalizing the information to the specific case.
Prefrontal cortex: brain region found in the frontal lobe, associated with complex cognitive processes such as decision making. It’s the last region to fully develop, during the last period of adolescence.
Randomized: a study in which participants are randomly divided into intervention or treatment groups. This allows for more balanced groups to avoid biases such as the selection bias.
Resilience: a person’s ability to overcome traumatic circumstances.
Selection bias: selection bias occurs when there are important differences between the selected groups (or the information collected), and therefore the participants of the experiment do not represent the population studied.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): type of antidepressant medication, currently the most prescribed for depression. It works by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin in neurons, so that it is more available in the brain.
Serotonin: neurotransmitter related to control of emotions and mood.
Suicidal ideation (SI): thoughts and planning about suicide.
Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system: the sympathetic nervous system is responsible for regulating the body’s activation responses, while the parasympathetic vagal system is responsible for returning to a state of balance after activation of the sympathetic system.
Synaptogenesis: the formation of synapses, that is, brain connections between neurons or other cells of the nervous system.
Systematic review: systematic reviews collect published information on a particular topic and provide a summary of the current evidence. When it is a quantitative review (which employs statistics), it is also known as a meta-analysis.
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD): generally described as a patient diagnosed with depression who has tried at least two treatments without experiencing any improvement.
