Background Ketamine represents a significant advancement in antidepressant therapy, but the commonly used intravenous and intranasal application routes currently limit its availability beyond specialized centers. By contrast, oral ketamine treatment might constitute an alternative that is easy to administer with established safety and efficacy for patients with chronic and severe pain at home.
Ketamine exerts rapid antidepressant effects by enhancing neuroplasticity, particularly in the amygdala and hippocampus-regions involved in fear processing and learning. While the role of ketamine's dissociative effects in its antidepressant response is debated, anxiety experienced during infusion has been negatively correlated with treatment outcomes. In this single-blind, placebo-controlled...