The American journal of psychiatry
March 1, 2025
Marjorie R Levinstein, Reece C Budinich, Jordi Bonaventura et al.
49 citations
Ketamine is a racemic compound and medication comprised of (S)-ketamine and (R)-ketamine enantiomers and its metabolites. It has been used for decades as a dissociative anesthetic, analgesic, and recreational drug. More recently, ketamine, its enantiomers, and its metabolites have been used or are being investigated for the treatment of refractory depression, as well as for comorbid disorders...
Molecular Psychiatry
February 19, 2025
Arianna Rizzo, Maria Zelai Garçon-Poca, Amelie Essmann et al.
14 citations
Esketamine represents a new class of drugs for treating mood disorders. Unlike traditional monoaminergic-based therapies, esketamine primarily targets N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR). However, esketamine is a complex drug with low affinity for NMDAR and can also bind to other targets, such as opioid receptors. Its precise mechanism of action for its antidepressant properties remains...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
September 6, 2022
Tommaso Di Ianni, Matine M. Azadian, Sedona N. Ewbank et al.
2 citations
preprint
Subanesthetic ketamine rapidly and robustly reduces depressive symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant depression. While it is commonly classified as an N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, our picture of ketamine’s mechanistic underpinnings is incomplete. Recent clinical evidence has indicated, controversially, that a component of the efficacy of ketamine in depression may...
Biochemical Pharmacology
December 1, 2021
E. Hess, L. Riggs, Michael Michaelides et al.
167 citations
Treating major depression is a medical need that remains unmet by monoaminergic therapeutic strategies that commonly fail to achieve symptom remission. A breakthrough in the treatment of depression was the discovery that the anesthetic (R,S)-ketamine (ketamine), when administered at sub-anesthetic doses, elicits rapid (sometimes within hours) antidepressant effects in humans that are otherwise...
Molecular Psychiatry
April 15, 2021
Jordi Bonaventura, Sherry Lam, Meghan L. Carlton et al.
266 citations
Ketamine, a racemic mixture of (S)-ketamine and (R)-ketamine enantiomers, has been used as an anesthetic, analgesic and more recently, as an antidepressant. However, ketamine has known abuse liability (the tendency of a drug to be used in non-medical situations due to its psychoactive effects), which raises concerns for its therapeutic use. (S)-ketamine was recently approved by the United...