Felix Betzler

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Charité · Department of Psychiatry

Contrasting widespread speculation in the media and public debate about spiking (administration of a substance to a person without their knowledge/consent), empirical evidence on the subject is lacking. This study aimed to investigate the assumed prevalence, perceived likelihood, and fear of drink-versus needle-spiking, and associated mental strain...

Background: As a big European city famous for its party scene, Berlin attracts college students that are a high-risk population for cannabis use and use disorder. College years are often associated with new behavior patterns, but the factors leading to cannabis initiation are rarely studied past adolescence. This study describes the longitudinal ev...

Background College students have been recognized as a risk group for substance use. Nevertheless, coherent risk factors for stimulant use remain to be elucidated. The objective of this paper is to identify risk factors associated with the recreational use of MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine. Methods An online questionnaire was distri...

Background Even in the early stages, global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic lead to serious dislocations of social life, secondary adjustment reactions to external restrictions and individual concerns. Coping mechanisms may also include dysfunctional strategies like an increase of drug use. Considering the wide-spread use of cannabis, the aim...

The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with various psychological stressors due to health-related, social, economic, and individual consequences, especially for minority groups such as refugees and other migrants who live in unstable conditions and have lost their social support groups. The aim of this study was to explore the impacts of the COVID-19...

Background Research suggests that university students are at high risk of using licit and illicit substances and that there has been an increase over the last decade in substance use among university students in Berlin, Germany. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between personality and substance use among university students in...

Objective: Problem-drinking among university students is common and poses serious health-related risks. Therefore, identifying and addressing associated factors is important. Participants and methods: A large cross-sectional online-survey with 12,914 university students from Berlin was conducted from November 2016 to August 2017. Relative-risk-...

The Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) model proposes preoperational functioning as a core feature of persistent depressive disorders (PDD). Empathy deficits comprise one aspect. Resulting from childhood maltreatment, empathy deficits may aggravate social isolation, a key factor in the maintenance of depression. CBASP tar...

This study described cannabis use behavior among college students in Berlin, in particular, differences in use motives between subjects with frequent use and those with signs of cannabis use disorder (CUD). Cross-sectional data were collected via an online survey among Berlin college students ( N=9350; 50.7% women; Mage=24.4). Motivation scales wer...

Background: The CBASP model proposes preoperational functioning as a core feature of persistent depressive disorders (PDD). Empathy deficits comprise one aspect. Resulting from childhood maltreatment, empathy deficits may aggravate social isolation, a key factor in the maintenance of depression. CBASP targets empathy by teaching patients to disenga...

Purpose of Review The use of psychedelics in a therapeutical setting has been reported for the treatment of various diagnoses in recent years. However, as psychedelic substances are still commonly known for their (illicit) recreational use, it may seem counterintuitive to use psychedelic therapy to treat substance use disorders. This review aims to...

Psychedelics such as psilocybin have recently gained remarkable interest in both the specialist literature and the lay press because studies suggest that these substances may have great therapeutic potential in various psychiatric disorders, including major depression. However, clinical trials with psychedelic drugs pose particular methodological c...

Background : The COVID-19 pandemic is presumably having an impact on the consumption of psychoactive substances. Social distancing and lockdown measures may particularly affect the use of “party drugs” (e.g., stimulants, dissociatives, and GHB/GBL) through the absence of typical use settings. We aimed to analyse the use patterns of those substances...

Ziel der Studie: Im Zuge der Minimierungsabsichten von Zwangsmaßnahmen ist ein gutes Verständnis für deren Einflussfaktoren elementar. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen Substanzkonsum und der Anwendung von Zwangsmaßnahmen. Methoden: Alle im Jahr 2019 durchgeführten Zwangsmaßnahmen der akutpsychiatrischen Stationen der Cha...

In context of the current COVID-19 pandemic the consumption of pandemic-related media coverage may be an important factor that is associated with anxiety and psychological distress. Aim of the study was to examine those associations in the general population in Germany. 6233 participants took part in an online-survey (March 27th–April 6th, 2020), w...

Student sex work is a current phenomenon all over the world, increasingly reported by the media in recent years. However, student sex work remains under-researched in Germany and is lacking direct first-hand reports from the people involved. Further, sex work remains stigmatized, and therefore, students practicing it could be at risk of social isol...

Objectives: Drug checking as a tool for harm reduction is offered in certain cities throughout Europe, the USA, and Australia, but in general, it is internationally still scarcely available and controversially discussed. This study aimed at investigating the potential impact of a drug-checking offer on Berlin nightlife attendees' illicit drug use...

Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts galten Psychedelika als zukünftiger Trend in der Psychotherapie. Jedoch wurde die klinische Erforschung durch gesellschaftlich motivierte Verbote lange blockiert und erst in den 1990er-Jahren wieder aufgenommen. Aktuelle Studien zeigen ein starkes Interesse an der Weiterentwicklung der Therapie mit Psychedelika. Ihr poten...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may cause psychological distress in the general population and has the potential to cause anxiety regarding COVID-19. No validated questionnaires exist for the measurement of specific COVID-19 anxiety. We modified the DSM 5 – Severity Measure for Specific Phobia–Adult scale specifically for anxiety r...

Background Physical activity (PA) shows many benefits for mental health. Mental health professionals play an important role in recommending PA to their patients. There is little research on PA recommendation behaviour in German mental health professionals. Aim of this study was to translate the Exercise in Mental Illness Questionnaire (EMIQ-HP) to...

Background The current COVID‐19 pandemic comes with multiple psychological stressors due to health‐related, social, economic, and individual consequences and may cause psychological distress. The aim of this study was to screen the population in Germany for negative impact on mental health in the current COVID‐19 pandemic and to analyze possible ri...

Background Physical activity (PA) plays an important role in the treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists and medical psychotherapists play a key role in this context by recommending PA to their patients. There are no previous studies on the recommendation behavior of psychiatrists for PA.Objective The aim of this study was to assess the PA rec...

The efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental disorders has been attributed to the lasting change from experiential avoidance to acceptance that these treatments appear to facilitate. This article presents a conceptual model that specifies potential psychological mechanisms underlying such change, and that shows substantial parallels be...

Background: Berlin is internationally known for its nightlife. In a nation-wide and Europe-wide comparison, the use of legal and illegal substances is comparatively higher in Berlin than in other similar cities. However, few data exist about the drug use in the party scene. Objective: This study aims to assess the sociodemographic characteristic...

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Untersuchung des Konsumverhaltens der Berliner Partyszene und Identifizierung gewünschter Hilfsangebote zur Reduktion von Konsumrisiken. Methoden Erfassung quantitativer (Fragebogen, N = 877) und qualitativer (Interviews, N = 20) Daten. Ergebnisse Der Konsum von Substanzen war weit verbreitet (insbesondere Alkohol, C...

Berlin is internationally known for its intense nightlife associated with high rates of psychoactive substance use. Previous studies conducted in other cities indicated college students as a group at high risk for substance (mis‐)use, that was associated with individual psychological and cognitive impairments as well as lower academic performance....

GHB (Gamma-Hydroxybuttersäure) und seine Vorläufersubstanzen GBL (GammaButyrolacton) und BDO (1,4-Butandiol) werden aufgrund der psychoaktiven Eigenschaften häufig in der Partyszene eingenommen. Stellt sich eine Abhängigkeit ein, so geht die Entzugsbehandlung oft mit dem Risiko schwerwiegender Komplikationen, wie schwer beherrschbaren Delirien einh...

Methamphetamin, (Grundlage des sog. „Crystal Meth“) bewirkt eine subjektiv empfundene Leistungssteigerung, eine Reduktion körperlicher und psychischer Müdigkeitserscheinungen sowie Euphorie. Seine Wirkung entfaltet es zentralnervös hauptsächlich über eine Konzentrationserhöhung von Noradrenalin und Dopamin im synaptischen Spalt.

Dissoziativa sind eine heterogene Gruppe von Substanzen, die ihre Wirkung primär durch einen Antagonismus am NMDA-Rezeptor entfalten. Phencyclidin (PCP) ist die Leitsubstanz der Dissoziativa, die jedoch nicht mehr verordnungsfähig ist und nunmehr im nicht-medizinischen Kontext eine Rolle spielt. Das dissoziative Anästhetikum Ketamin ist sowohl in d...

Neue Substanzen stellen für Aidshilfen und das Suchthilfesystem eine Herausforderung dar. Beratungs- und klinische Einrichtungen sind noch in einer Phase, in der Hilfestrukturen aufgebaut werden und man voneinander und miteinander lernt. Wir hatten im vorletzten HIVreport über psychotherapeutische Angebote für Konsument_innen neuer Drogen berichtet...

In recent years, various therapeutic interventions have been established that extended behavior and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) by so-called “third-wave” strategies. In order to address specific therapeutic challenges in certain subgroups of patients who do not sufficiently respond to “classical CBT,” some of these third-wave strategies put pa...

Objective: Mixed states in affective disorders represent a particular challenge in clinical routine, characterized by a complicated course of treatment and a worse treatment response. Methods: Clinical features of mixed states and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria are presented and critical discussed. We the...

In the treatment of phobic patients, in vivo exposure is a highly effective, yet rarely applied approach. Among other factors, stress experienced by therapists while performing this intervention might contribute to the reluctance of its application. Also, this technique is still strongly associated to traditional behavior therapy and rarely conside...

Seine Wirkung entfaltet es zentralnervös hauptsächlich über eine Konzentrationserhöhung von Noradrenalin und Dopamin im synaptischen Spalt. Obwohl Methamphetamin keine neue Substanz ist, spielt es aufgrund der wachsenden Verbreitung in unserem Gesundheitssystem eine immer größere Rolle und erhält zunehmend mediale Aufmerksamkeit. Es wird von einem...

Dissoziativa sind eine heterogene Gruppe von Substanzen, die ihre Wirkung primär durch einen Antagonismus am NMDA-Rezeptor entfalten. Phencyclidin (PCP) ist die Leitsubstanz der Dissoziativa, die jedoch nicht mehr verordnungsfähig ist und nunmehr im nicht-medizinischen Kontext eine Rolle spielt. Das dissoziative Anästhetikum Ketamin ist sowohl in d...

Treatment of unipolar depression with currently available antidepressants is still unsatisfactory. Augmentation with lithium or second generation antipsychotics is an established practice in non-responders to antidepressant monotherapy, but is also associated with a substantial non-response rate and with non-tolerance. Based on a systematic review...

Hintergrund: Zahlreiche Medienbeiträge warnen vor einer Überschwemmung Deutschlands mit „Crystal Meth“, neuartigen Designerdrogen und steigenden Todesfällen. Zugleich berichtet das Bundeskriminalamt über eine Entwicklung weg von pflanzlichen hin zu synthetischen Drogen. Sowohl die Menge an sichergestellten Substanzen (darunter insbesondere Methamph...

Different cognitive impairments have been reported as a result of long-term MDMA/ecstasy use. Increased impulsivity and altered decision-making have been shown to be associated with the development and maintenance of addictive disorders pointing towards the necessity to understand a potential impairment of decision-making due to MDMA use. Thus, ass...

Methamphetamin, (Grundlage des sog. „Crystal Meth“) bewirkt eine subjektiv empfundene Leistungssteigerung, eine Reduktion körperlicher und psychischer Müdigkeitserscheinungen sowie Euphorie. Seine Wirkung entfaltet es zentralnervös hauptsächlich über eine Konzentrationserhöhung von Noradrenalin und Dopamin im synaptischen Spalt. Obwohl Methamphetam...

The anaesthetic ketamine has been demonstrated to have an antidepressive effect in several randomised controlled studies. Patients with a severe therapy-resistant depression showed response rates of up to 70 % after one single ketamine infusion. In contrast to all other antidepressant treatment options, this effect was already apparent at 24 hours...

IntroductionWithin the recent years, the phenomenon of sex work among students appeared in various media channels (Chrisafis, 2008; Dixon, 2012). Several studies have investigated sex work among high school students in Norway (Pedersen & Hegna, 2003), Sweden (Svedin & Priebe, 2007), and Canada (Lavoie, Thibodeau, Gagne, & Hebert, 2010). Pedersen an...

Motor impairment after stroke has been related to infarct size, infarct location, and integrity of motor tracts. To determine the value of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as a predictor of motor outcome and its role as a structural surrogate marker of impairment in chronic stroke, we tested correlations between motor impairment and DTI-derived measu...

Background: It is important to understand the sensory, motor and perceptual factors that influence man’s ability to adapt to different gravitational forces. Experiments performed on Space Shuttle, Skylab and MIR revealed that changes in a person's neurovestibular system occur during middle- and long-term exposure to weightlessness – changes related...