Gniewko WięckiewiczMedical University of Silesia | SUM · Department of Psychiatry
Gniewko Więckiewicz
MD PhD
About
41
Publications
10,398
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Introduction
MD (psychiatrist) and PhD (addictions) from Poland. Currently I focus on PolDrugs, the largest biennial naturalistic research project on drug users in Poland. I also teach psychiatry and advise PhD students. I am a straightforward person. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message. Suggestions and proposals are also welcome. Have a nice day!
Education
October 2011 - June 2017
Publications
Publications (41)
Resistance to traditional treatment methods is still a major obstacle in modern psychiatry. As a result, several studies are currently being conducted to find effective alternatives to traditional therapies. One of these alternatives is psilocybin, a psychedelic substance that has been tested in clinical trials as an adjunct to psychotherapy. These...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric pathology arising from severe trauma exceeding an individual's adaptive capabilities. Clinical presentations include flashbacks, nightmares, emotional detachment, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, and heightened vegetative arousal. High-risk groups encompass veterans, survivors of sexual ass...
Drug addiction is a rising concern globally that has deeply attracted the attention of the healthcare sector. The United States is not an exception, and the drug addiction crisis there is even more serious, with 10% of adults having faced substance use disorder, while around 75% of this number has been reported as not having received any treatment....
Substance use disorder (SUD) continues to pose a significant global health challenge, necessitating innovative and effective therapeutic interventions. Ketamine, traditionally recognized for its anesthetic properties, has emerged as a novel and promising avenue for the treatment of SUD. This narrative review critically examines the current body of...
Marihuana has been known to people for hundreds of years. Today, marihuana is either legal or decriminalized in many countries, particularly in Europe and the Americas, which may encourage use of the drug. Cannabis and its derivatives are used in medicine on the recommendation of doctors, including for the treatment of multiple sclerosis or drug-re...
Simple Summary
Individuals diagnosed with cancer and experiencing mental health challenges such as depression, psychosis, anxiety, or addictions face heightened socioeconomic risks. These include increased healthcare costs, reduced treatment adherence, and a diminished quality of life. The burden of coping with both conditions simultaneously can ex...
Background: Psychosis is defined as a series of symptoms that impair the mind and lead to a kind of loss of reference to reality. Development of psychosis is usually preceded by the appearance of prodromal symptoms. Numerous attempts have been made to find out how psychoactive substances can influence the onset and development of psychotic disorder...
Introduction
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was originally treated as a neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs mainly in children and tends to diminish or disappear with age, but we now know that symptoms persist into adulthood in over 50% of ADHD patients. Undiagnosed individuals often turn to psychoactive substance to minimize t...
The use of illegal stimulants is a significant problem of modern medicine, including psychiatry and broadly understood mental health. Often, conventional treatment methods do not bring the desired effect, and sometimes the patient themself does not want to use them. This article presents a method of harm reduction based on prescribing stimulants av...
Background and Objectives: PolDrugs is the largest Polish naturalistic nationwide survey to present basic demographic and epidemiological data that could potentially prevent harm from illicit substances intake in drugs users. The most recent results were presented in 2021. The goal of this year’s edition was to re-present the above data and compare...
Sexuality is the one of the most important parts of human life. The aim of our study was to identify the factors influencing the onset and age of sexual initiation in students and drawing attention to the need to improve access to sexual education in Polish schools at a sufficiently high level. An original questionnaire with 31 questions was used f...
No single effective therapy for alcohol abuse has been found, despite it being a serious sociological and economic problem for hundreds of years. It seems difficult to find a single drug as a panacea for the alcohol problem due to the complexity of the pathophysiology of alcohol dependence. The purpose of this narrative review is to review existing...
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) belongs to the family of neurotrophins, which are growth factors with trophic effects on neurons. BDNF is the most widely distributed neurotrophin in the central nervous system (CNS) and is highly expressed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus. Its distribution outside the CNS has also been demonst...
Due to the continuous development of palliative care and methods of pain relief in the last moments of patients’ lives, we are faced with the question of how long we should take measures to delay inevitable death for, without providing prolonged therapy against the patient’s will. For terminally ill and people experiencing unimaginable suffering, e...
Cannabis sativa, whose flowers are also known as marijuana or marihuana, is a recreational plant that contains many chemicals that are constantly being studied by scientists around the world. One of these substances is cannabidiol (CBD), which has gained widespread popularity on the internet as a cure for mental health problems, leading many people...
Worldwide, there are about 121 million unintended pregnancies per year. The aim of the study was to assess the attitudes in different groups of students from 40 Polish universities towards pregnancy termination. In total, 9686 university students (20.1% male and 79.9% female) took part in our research. Questions about attitudes towards abortion in...
Carotid revascularization may lead to improved cognitive function beyond stroke prevention. This article summarizes the conclusions from available studies on the effects of carotid reperfusion procedures on cognitive function. The papers cited used different neuropsychological tests for cognitive assessment, resulting in different methodologies and...
Despite many different kinds of substances available for depression treatment, depression itself still appears to be a clinical challenge. Recently, formerly illicit substances came to scientists' attention, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Some studies suggest that these substances might be effec...
The dramatically changing situation during COVID-19 pandemic, is anticipated to provoke psycho-emotional disturbances and somatization arising from the current epidemiological situation that will become a significant problem for global and regional healthcare systems. The aim of this study was to identify the predictors, risk factors and factors as...
Cel pracy
MDMA to jedna z najczęściej stosowanych substancji psychoaktywnych na świecie. Obecnie w wielu krajach prowadzone są badania kliniczne nad zastosowaniem tej substancji w leczeniu PTSD i alkoholizmu. Dostępnych jest jednak niewiele informacji demograficznych na temat użytkowników, którzy używają substancji w celach pozamedycznych. Celem by...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental health condition that begins after exposure to a traumatic event. Despite recommended various therapeutic approaches, includ- ing both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, treatment is not as effective as expected. Over recent years the pharmaceutical industry has not been able to offer a new a...
1) Background: this study aimed to evaluate the worries, anxiety, and depression in the public during the initial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown in three culturally different groups of internet survey respondents: Middle Eastern (Israel), European (Poland), and North American (Canada). (2) Methods: a cross-sectional online su...
High-risk sexual behavior consists of activities and habits that put a person at increased risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or unplanned pregnancy. Poland is currently experiencing a problem with increased STI rates, largely due to poor sexual education. Our exploratory study aims to evaluate the sexual behavior of students attending...
Article is originally available in PL language. Authors encourage using free translation service by Google (translate.google.com) for translation to your own language or contacting the first author (gniewkowieckiewicz@gmail.com) for ENG translation. Thank you.
Introduction: The possibilities of the therapeutic use of illegal psychoactive substances...
MDMA, or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, has over a hundred years of history. Synthesized in Merck laboratories overcame a long way to become the hope for many people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Article presents the history of MDMA from synthesis until today. Article originally available in Polish, although basic English trans...
Background:
In late December 2019, a new pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) infection began to spread around the world. The new situation gave rise to severe health threats, economic uncertainty, and social isolation, causing potential deleterious effects on people's physical and mental health. Thes...
Introduction:
Poland was initially less affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, however, severe restrictions, and health care restructuration have impacted all areas of medicine, including urology. Therefore, we aimed, via an online survey, to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Polish urologists and urology reside...
BACKGROUND
In late December 2019, a new pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) infection, began to spread around the world. The new situation gave rise to severe health threats, economic uncertainty, and social isolation, causing potential deleterious effects on the physical and mental health of the peop...
Aim
The objective of the study was to determine the impact of synthetic cathinones usage
on depressive symptoms and oral behaviors among recreational users.
Material and methods
Users of online drugs-related forums were asked to fill in a questionnaire via Google Forms Platform. The questionnaire contained questions about patterns
of drugs use, the...
What is MDMA? How does it work? What is the history? Who uses MDMA nowadays? What are the current perspectives? Find a brief introduction to these subjects in this presentation.
Aim. The aim of the study was to assess efficacy of psychoeducation in limiting body mass gain in patients with schizophrenia undergoing atypical antipsychotics monotherapy treatment.
Material and method.
Education program Caring for Health and Silhouette, commissioned by Moneo Pharma Group, was implemented for patients with schizophrenia. The aim...
Psychoactive substances have been around for a very long time. In the 1980’s, chemical engineers created new psychoactive substances as the answer to worldwide drug prohibition. So far, these legal highs have been proven to be worse
than the „classical drugs”. In this article the authors try to present the most important new psychoactive substances...
Tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common type of chronic recurring head pain. It can occur twice as often in women as in men. It is the most common type of headache. Its lifetime prevalence is 30% to 78% in the general population. TTH treatment should be multilevel. It often consists of taking pain medication, muscle relaxants, antidepressant...
Questions
Question (1)
I'm trying to define impact of substituted cathinones on depression. To my surprise, majority of my patients who use substituted cathinones are also using many other substances, but I have no detailed data about patients' other drugs usage except for the names of substances. I have detailed data on how often they take the cathinones though, therefore I want to divide the substances into 2 or 3 groups based on these substances' impact on depression for analytical reasons. I don't want to miss any approach during analyzing.
The full list I asked them about contains alcohol, marihuana, amphetamine, meth, MDMA, cocaine, ketamine, LSD/DMT/psylocybine and 2C phenethylamines and "others".
I thought about dividing them into stimulants, depressants and psychedelics, which seems the most reasonable fragmentation to do. Any thoughts?
Thank you!
