Crosstalk between Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapy and Neurological Sciences in Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

Psychotherapy is a comprehensive biological treatment modifying complex underlying cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and regulatory responses in the brain, leading patients with mental illness to a new interpretation of the sense of self and others. Psychotherapy is an art of science integrated with psychology and/or philosophy. Neurological sciences study the neurological basis of cognition, memory, and behavior as well as the impact of neurological damage and disease on these functions, and their treatment. Both psychotherapy and neurological sciences deal with the brain; nevertheless, they continue to stay polarized. Existential phenomenological psychotherapy (EPP) has been in the forefront of meaning-centered counseling for almost a century. The phenomenological approach in psychotherapy originated in the works of Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, and Viktor Frankl, and it has been committed to accounting for the existential possibilities and limitations of one’s life. EPP provides philosophically rich interpretations and empowers counseling techniques to assist mentally suffering individuals by finding meaning and purpose to life. The approach has proven to be effective in treating mood and anxiety disorders. This narrative review article demonstrates the development of EPP, the therapeutic methodology, evidence-based accounts of its curative techniques, current understanding of mood and anxiety disorders in neurological sciences, and a possible converging path to translate and integrate meaning-centered psychotherapy and neuroscience, concluding that the EPP may potentially play a synergistic role with the currently prevailing medication-based approaches for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.

Co-Players in Chronic Pain: Neuroinflammation and the Tryptophan-Kynurenine Metabolic Pathway

“…More and more emerging findings shed light on relationship of psychiatric symptoms and networks of the brain centers in neuropsychiatric disorders [113][114][115]. Neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography may open the gate to understanding underlying mechanisms in signaling to the third order neurons to the cortex in chronic pain sensation [116][117][118]. Relief of pain can be achieved through accompanying symptoms such as cognition, mood, and sleep by pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy [116,119].…”

“…Neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography may open the gate to understanding underlying mechanisms in signaling to the third order neurons to the cortex in chronic pain sensation [116][117][118]. Relief of pain can be achieved through accompanying symptoms such as cognition, mood, and sleep by pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy [116,119]. Therefore, psychogenic components of pain play an essential role to understand pathomechanism of chronic pain, unless nociplastic pain mechanism can sufficiently elucidate the reciprocal interaction with third order neurons in pathogenesis of chronic pain.…”

Serum BDNF and suicidal ideation in drug-naïve and drug-treated MDD patients: a case–control study

“…Treatment options for depression include pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological interventions such as psychotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Psychotherapy has been shown to have beneficial effects on depression, including the reduction of depressive symptoms and an improvement in quality of life [52].…”

Immune Influencers in Action: Metabolites and Enzymes of the Tryptophan-Kynurenine Metabolic Pathway

“…Scrupulous studies are underway to untangle the thread of pathophysiology of mental disorders and their comorbidities not only in clinical medicine, but also in animal studies [106][107][108][109]. Psychological stress, especially depression has been found to be a risk factor for dementia, a prognostic biomarker for stokes and a therapeutic target for meaning-centered psychotherapy in depression, and animal-assisted and pet-robot interventions in dementia [110][111][112][113]. Four main representative psychiatric symptoms including positive, negative and cognitive symptoms, and anxiety are reviewed.…”