JAMA Psychiatry
September 2, 2026
Diana K. Orsini, Sara Di Luch, George Tomlinson et al.
Importance Antidepressant efficacy of intravenous (IV) ketamine has been demonstrated in major depressive disorder; however, the efficacy and safety of ketamine for bipolar depression remain largely unknown, with limited data available in this specific population. Objective To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of adjunctive IV ketamine compared with midazolam for...
European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
February 1, 2025
Danica E. Johnson, Nelson B Rodrigues, Sydney Weisz et al.
Depression with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with more severe symptoms and a reduced response to traditional treatments. Although ketamine shows promise as a rapid-acting antidepressant for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), its effectiveness in patients with comorbid PTSD remains underexplored. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 134 patients...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
April 1, 2024
Nelson B Rodrigues, David C J Chen-Li, Joshua D. Di Vincenzo et al.
12 citations
Converging lines of evidence indicate that ketamine is a rapid antidepressant for individuals with treatment-resistant depression. Hitherto, no reliable a priori predictors of ketamine response have been reported. Pharmacogenetic biomarkers have yielded mixed results regarding potential candidate genes associated with ketamine's biochemistry as reliable predictors of response. No studies have...
Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)
October 1, 2023
Farhan Fancy, Nelson B Rodrigues, Joshua D. Di Vincenzo et al.
4 citations
Clinical trials have demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects with intravenous (IV) ketamine for major depressive disorder, with relatively less research specifically for bipolar depression. Herein, we describe the real-world effectiveness of repeated ketamine infusions for treatment-resistant bipolar depression. This study was conducted in a community clinic in Mississauga, Ontario (Canadian...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
May 16, 2023
Noah Chisamore, Kevork Danayan, Nelson B Rodrigues et al.
13 citations
Background: Ketamine is an emerging treatment for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) associated with rapid and robust improvements in depressive symptoms and suicidality. However, the efficacy and safety of ketamine in transitional age youth (TAY; age 18–25) populations remains understudied. Methods: In this retrospective analysis, TAY patients (n = 52) receiving ketamine for TRD were matched...
Psychiatry Research
March 5, 2023
Kevork Danayan, Noah Chisamore, Nelson B Rodrigues et al.
36 citations
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has high rates of comorbidity with mood disorders, including treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Comorbidity of BPD with depression is associated with poorer response to antidepressants. Intravenous ketamine is a novel treatment for TRD that has not been specifically evaluated in patients with comorbid BPD. In this retrospective analysis of data collected...
Bipolar Disorders
December 14, 2022
Farhan Fancy, Nelson B Rodrigues, Joshua D. Di Vincenzo et al.
35 citations
Abstract Background Clinical trials have demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects with intravenous (IV) ketamine for major depressive disorder, with relatively less research specifically for bipolar depression. Herein, we describe the real‐world effectiveness of repeated ketamine infusions for treatment‐resistant bipolar depression. Methods This study was conducted in a community clinic in...
Journal of Affective Disorders
December 1, 2022
Anastasia Levinta, Shakila Meshkat, Roger S McIntyre et al.
Ketamine has demonstrated rapid and significant antidepressant effects in patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD). Herein, we conducted a systematic review to determine ketamine's efficacy as a function of the stage of treatment resistance (e.g., number of failed treatments) among individuals with TRD. A systematic search of PubMed and Scopus from inception to August 2021 was...
CNS Drugs
October 1, 2022
Niloufar Pouyan, Zahra Halvaei Khankahdani, Farnaz Younesi Sisi et al.
16 citations
Preliminary results from randomized controlled studies as well as identified molecular, cellular, and circuit targets of select psychedelics (e.g., psilocybin) suggest that their effects are transdiagnostic. In this review, we exploit the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) transdiagnostic framework, to synthesize extant literature on psilocybin. We aimed to identify RDoC-based effects of...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
May 1, 2022
Yazen Alnefeesi, David C J Chen-Li, Ella Krane et al.
177 citations
Ketamine is a promising therapeutic option in treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The acute efficacy of ketamine in TRD has been demonstrated in replicated randomised-controlled trials (RCTs), but the generalizability of RCT data to real-world practice is limited. To this end, we conducted a systematic review (Search date: 25/12/2021; 1482 records identified) and meta-analysis of studies...
Psychiatry Research
April 25, 2022
Hartej Gill, Parnian Puramat, Pankti Patel et al.
16 citations
The use of psilocybin as treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) has been examined as a promising alternative to traditional first-line options. We reviewed existing literature to provide a synthesis of the extant neuroimaging observations with psilocybin, and to identify putative therapeutic targets for target engagement studies with psilocybin, and potentially other psychedelics. We...
Psychiatry Research
2022
Joshua D. Di Vincenzo, Orly Lipsitz, Nelson B Rodrigues et al.
11 citations
Antidepressants are associated with symptomatic worsening in a subgroup of patients. Replicated evidence has demonstrated rapid and robust antidepressant effects with intravenous (IV) ketamine in treatment resistant depression (TRD); however, the risk of ketamine worsening depressive symptoms in a subgroup of patients remains unknown. Herein we report a retrospective analysis on the rates of...
CNS Drugs
November 17, 2021
Susan Ling, Felicia Ceban, Leanna M.W. Lui et al.
123 citations
Therapeutic deficiencies with monoaminergic antidepressants invites the need to identify and develop novel rapid-acting antidepressants. Hitherto, ketamine and esketamine are identified as safe, well-tolerated rapid-acting antidepressants in adults with treatment-resistant depression, and also mitigate measures of suicidality. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid and...
Psychiatry Research
October 1, 2021
Tuyen T. Le, Joshua D. Di Vincenzo, Kayla M Teopiz et al.
26 citations
Approximately 0.35-1% of the general population is afflicted with psychotic depression at some time in their life. Psychotic depression is a subtype of major depressive disorder characterized by mood congruent hallucinations and/or delusions. Patients with psychotic depression often represent the most severe cases, with high relapse and mortality rate. Although treatment guidelines recommend a...
Journal of Sleep Research
June 16, 2021
Nelson B Rodrigues, Roger S McIntyre, Orly Lipsitz et al.
28 citations
Summary Sleep disturbances are commonly reported in patients with treatment‐resistant depression (TRD). Available data have shown that intravenous (IV) ketamine is an effective treatment for patients with TRD and growing data suggest ketamine may improve overall sleep architecture. In the present study, we evaluated whether changes in sleep symptoms mediated the anti‐depressive and/or...
Advances in Therapy
April 30, 2021
Eric P. Mcmullen, Yena Lee, Orly Lipsitz et al.
Ketamine treatment is capable of significant and rapid symptom improvement in adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). A limitation of ketamine treatment in TRD is the relatively short duration of time to relapse (e.g., median 2–4 weeks). The objective of the systematic review herein is to identify strategies capable of prolonging the acute efficacy of ketamine in adults with TRD....
Journal of Psychiatric Research
March 1, 2021
Joshua D. Di Vincenzo, Ashley N. Siegel, Orly Lipsitz et al.
59 citations
The majority of antidepressant medication trials have focused on adult populations (ages 18-65), with much less research in older and younger populations. Moreover, key differences in the efficacy and safety of antidepressants have been identified between these age groups. Ketamine has emerged as a promising new treatment for treatment resistant depression (TRD). The objective of this review is...
Journal of Affective Disorders
March 1, 2021
Roger S McIntyre, Nelson B Rodrigues, Orly Lipsitz et al.
10 citations
BACKGROUND Depression severity and efficacy measurement scales employed for rapid-acting treatments (e.g., ketamine) were initially validated in adults receiving conventional monoamine-based antidepressants. The emergence of rapid-acting antidepressants in psychiatry provides the impetus for outcome measures that have been validated as sensitive to change with rapid-acting treatments. Herein,...
Journal of Affective Disorders
December 29, 2020
Nelson B Rodrigues, Roger S McIntyre, Orly Lipsitz et al.
BACKGROUND Dissociation is a treatment-emergent adverse event commonly associated with IV ketamine, often measured using the 23-item Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS). The objective of this study was to develop a short form version of the CADSS for easier clinical use. METHODS Retrospective data of 260 patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) receiving IV...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
December 11, 2020
Jiaqi Xiong, Orly Lipsitz, David C J Chen-Li et al.
122 citations
The efficacy of ketamine in reducing suicidal ideation (SI) has been previously reported. We aimed to evaluate acute anti-SI effects of single-dose ketamine in different formulations/routes of administration by pooling results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A systematic search was conducted on Cochrane, Embase, Medline, and PubMed from inception to July 1st, 2020. Studies were...
CNS Spectrums
December 10, 2020
Nelson B Rodrigues, Ashley N. Siegel, Orly Lipsitz et al.
17 citations
BACKGROUND: Patients unsuccessfully treated by neurostimulation may represent a highly intractable subgroup of depression. While the efficacy of intravenous (IV) ketamine has been established in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), there is an interest to evaluate its effectiveness in a subpopulation with a history of neurostimulation. METHODS: This retrospective, posthoc...
CNS Spectrums
December 3, 2020
Orly Lipsitz, Roger S McIntyre, Nelson B Rodrigues et al.
25 citations
BACKGROUND: Higher body mass index (BMI) has been found to predict greater antidepressant response to intravenous (IV) ketamine treatment. We evaluated the association between BMI and response to repeat-dose IV ketamine in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). METHODS: Adults (N = 230) with TRD received four infusions of IV ketamine at a community-based clinic. Changes in symptoms...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
November 23, 2020
Hartej Gill, Barjot Gill, Nelson B Rodrigues et al.
92 citations
Replicated evidence has documented cognitive deficits in populations with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Approximately 40% of patients with MDD present with impairment of one or more cognitive domains. As such, there is an unmet need to discover treatments that have pro-cognitive effects in TRD patients. Ketamine has demonstrated efficacy as a rapid-onset intervention for the treatment...
Journal of Affective Disorders
November 1, 2020
Roger S McIntyre, Isabelle P. Carvalho, Leanna M.W. Lui et al.
186 citations
BACKGROUND Ketamine is established as a rapid and effective treatment in adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The availability of different formulations and routes of delivery invites the need for evaluating relative effect sizes. METHODS Effect size with respect to depression symptom reduction for each formulation and route of delivery was compared at discrete time-points (i.e.,...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
October 11, 2020
Roger S McIntyre, Nelson B Rodrigues, Orly Lipsitz et al.
19 citations
Background: Individuals meeting criteria for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) are differentially affected by high levels of anxiety symptoms. Aims: There is a need to identify the efficacy of novel rapid-onset treatments in adults with mood disorders and comorbid anxious-distress. Methods: This study included patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar...