Australia’s reclassification of psilocybin as a Schedule 8 substance for treatment-resistant depression represents a significant shift in psychiatric policy. While this regulatory change positions Australia as a global leader in psychedelic medicine, its implementation has revealed substantial challenges. This article critically examines the regulatory, ethical and operational complexities...
Ketamine has emerged as a rapid-acting intervention for treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders, generating both enthusiasm and unease. While evidence demonstrates robust antidepressant, anxiolytic and anti-suicidal effects, ketamine also carries risks, including dissociation, dependence and uncertain long-term safety. Its reputation as a recreational drug further complicates clinical...
Ketamine’s rapid acting symptom relief make it a promising intervention for PTSD. However, the mechanisms driving its long-term efficacy over weeks and months remain poorly understood. This study investigated the short-and long-term impacts on gene expression of a six-week subanesthetic oral ketamine trial in 23 PTSD participants (9 males, 14 females). Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs)...
Ketamine has been investigated as a treatment alternative for PTSD for the last 20 years, yet there have been virtually no reports of biological changes or biomarker characterisation related to treatment. To address this significant gap, this study analysed blood samples from 25 participants with PTSD who took part in an open-label 6-week trial of low dose oral ketamine treatment. Serum and...
Ketamine is being actively investigated as a rapid-acting treatment for many conditions with a stress-related psychopathology, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The majority of studies regarding ketamine treatment for PTSD to date (including open-label and randomised control trials) have focused on intravenous (IV) ketamine administration. This administration route has...
Subanesthetic doses of ketamine are a promising novel treatment for suicidality; however, the evidence for predictive biomarkers is sparse. Recently, measures of complexity, including Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) and multiscale entropy (MSE), have been implicated in ketamine's therapeutic action. We evaluated electroencephalogram (EEG)-derived LZC and MSE differences between responders and...
The underlying brain mechanisms of ketamine in treating chronic suicidality and the characteristics of patients who will benefit from ketamine treatment remain unclear. To address these gaps, we investigated temporal variations of brain functional synchronisation in patients with suicidality treated with ketamine in a 6-week open-label oral ketamine trial. The trial's primary endpoint was the...
Abstract Ketamine has received considerable attention for its rapid and robust antidepressant response over the past decade. Current evidence, in clinical populations, predominantly relates to parenterally administered ketamine, which is reported to produce significant undesirable side effects, with additional concerns regarding long-term safety and abuse potential. Attempts to produce a...
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder associated with serious adverse health outcomes, for which there is currently considerable treatment ineffectiveness. Characterised by restrictive eating behaviours, distorted body image perceptions and excessive physical activity, there is growing recognition anorexia nervosa is associated with underlying dysfunction in excitatory and inhibitory neurometabolite...
Abstract Numerous studies have demonstrated that low‐dose subanesthetic intravenous ketamine infusion treatment leads to rapid improvement of treatment‐resistant depression. The following case report describes the use of a very low‐dose subcutaneous ketamine as a form of maintenance in a patient with severe treatment‐resistant depression using a retrospective chart review.