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Sachin Ahuja

3 papers in the library · 4 citations · publishing 2022-2025

Papers

Quantitative natural language processing markers of psychoactive drug effects: A pre-registered systematic review

Journal of Psychopharmacology February 16, 2025 Sachin Ahuja, Farida Zaher, Lena Palaniyappan 4 citations

A systematic review of studies using natural language processing to analyze speech and text after psychoactive drug use found that all studied substances—stimulants, MDMA, cannabis, ketamine, and psychedelics—alter language production. Emerging patterns include increased verbosity with stimulants, reduced lexicon with LSD, increased semantic proximity to emotional words with MDMA, increased positive sentiment with psilocybin, and altered speech acoustics with cannabis. Only one study provided externally validated support for identifying MDMA intoxication using NLP and machine learning. Meta-analysis was not possible due to heterogeneity and few studies. The authors call for standardized speech tasks and a shared language corpus to improve replicability.

A case series of group-based ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for patients in residential treatment for eating disorders with comorbid depression and anxiety disorders.

Journal of eating disorders May 6, 2022 Reid Robison, Adele Lafrance, Madeline Brendle et al.

In a small case series of five patients with eating disorders and co-occurring mood and anxiety disorders, group-based ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (G-KAP) delivered weekly over four weeks in a residential treatment setting was associated with clinically significant improvements in depression scores (PHQ-9) for four of five participants and in anxiety scores (GAD-7) for two of five participants, measured from before dosing to 24 hours after the final session. No serious adverse events occurred, and the protocol was reported as practical to implement. The findings suggest G-KAP may be a useful adjunct to intensive eating disorder treatment, though further research is needed.

Ketamine as a Novel Psychopharmacotherapy for Eating Disorders: Evidence and Future Directions.

Brain sciences March 12, 2022 Anya Ragnhildstveit, Matthew Slayton, Laura Kate Jackson et al.

Eating disorders are serious psychiatric conditions with limited treatment options. Ketamine, a drug approved for treatment-resistant depression, is now being investigated for eating disorders. This review examines the evidence for ketamine in treating anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Results are encouraging but limited to case reports on anorexia nervosa. More research is needed to determine ketamine's effectiveness across different eating disorder types, establish safety, and optimize dosing.