Psychopharmacology (Berl)
May 22, 2026
Wei-Chen Lin, Li-Kai Cheng, Tung-Ping Su et al.
Shorter to be effective: subanesthetic-dose ketamine infusion reduces the global and regional path length of brain functional connectivity in patients with treatment-resistant depression and suicidal ideation.
Scientific Reports
May 20, 2026
Guan-Jie She, Wei-Chi Li, Chun-Hsiang Chou et al.
Emerging evidence shows that ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, can produce rapid anti-suicidal effects in treatment-resistant depression, yet its underlying neuropharmacological mechanisms remain elusive. The present study aimed at investigating the therapeutic effect of ketamine infusion on suicidal ideation by examining hemodynamic response changes in resting-state...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 3, 2026
Kuan-I Liu, Wei-Chen Lin, Cheng-Ta Li et al.
Intravenous ketamine demonstrates rapid efficacy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, its impact on individual depressive symptoms and whether the degree of treatment resistance moderates these effects remain unclear. This study aimed to dissect symptom-specific trajectories and examine the moderating role of the degree of treatment resistance. We conducted a post-hoc analysis of...
Journal of Affective Disorders
April 15, 2026
Jen-Ping Chen, Chih-Wei Hsu, Yi-Ting Chen et al.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and esketamine are FDA-approved treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), yet head-to-head comparative effectiveness data remain limited. Our study compared the effectiveness and safety profiles of rTMS versus esketamine in adults with TRD. This cohort study used target trial emulation with 1:1 propensity score matching on 50...
Pharmacopsychiatry
February 26, 2026
Ping-Chung Wu, Wei-Chen Lin, Tung-Ping Su et al.
As accumulating evidence suggests the antisuicidal properties of ketamine, elucidating its underlying mechanisms and predictors of treatment response has become crucial. Whether a combination of clinical markers can enhance the prediction of the antisuicidal response to ketamine remains unclear.Using data from our previous randomized placebo-controlled and open-label trials, this post hoc...
European Journal for Philosophy of Science
October 25, 2025
Karen Yan, Chao Ni, Yun-Ying Kuo et al.
Abstract This paper distinguishes the drug-centered view of psychedelics (DCP) and the drug-assisted view of psychedelics (DAP). While these approaches differ conceptually, both rely on the methodology of evidence-based medicine, using randomized controlled trials to validate therapeutic efficacy. Using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a case study of DAP, we reconstruct the causal reasoning...
The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science
April 2, 2025
Wei-Chen Lin, Li-Kai Cheng, Tung-Ping Su et al.
2 citations
Evidence suggests the crucial role of dysfunctional default mode (DMN), salience and frontoparietal (FPN) networks, collectively termed the triple network model, in the pathophysiology of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Using the graph theory- and seed-based functional connectivity analyses, we attempted to elucidate the role of low-dose ketamine in the triple networks, namely the DMN,...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
March 24, 2025
Chung-Feng Kao, Shih-Jen Tsai, Tung-Ping Su et al.
1 citation
Low-dose ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist that exerts an antidepressant effect on patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This antidepressant effect may extend beyond the glutamatergic hypothesis. Nevertheless, the roles of genes encoding other monoamine neurotransmitters (i.e., serotonin and dopamine) in the neuromechanism of low-dose ketamine remain unknown....
Psychiatry Research
March 1, 2025
Tung-Ping Su, Li-Kai Cheng, Pei-Chi Tu et al.
6 citations
Ketamine is a dissociative drug used for the treatment of depression. However, the neurofunctional mechanism underlying the antidepressant effect of ketamine remains unknown. According to previous research, low-dose ketamine affects large-scale brain networks, including default-mode and salient networks. A total of 43 patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and suicidal ideation (SI)...
Molecular Psychiatry
2025
Pei-Chi Tu, Wan-Chen Chang, Tung-Ping Su et al.
13 citations
Previous studies have shown an association between the thalamocortical dysconnectivity and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Whether a single subanesthetic dose of ketamine may change thalamocortical connectivity among patients with TRD is unclear. Whether these changes in thalamocortical connectivity is associated with the antidepressant and antisuicidal effects of ketamine treatment is...
Pharmacopsychiatry
December 20, 2024
Mu-Hong Chen, Tung-Ping Su, Wei-Chen Lin et al.
1 citation
Low-grade inflammation (LGI) contributes to resistance against traditional antidepressants. However, whether the antidepressant and antisuicidal effects of ketamine on patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) differ between those with LGI and those without LGI remains unknown.This study included 167 patients with TRD, among whom 46 had LGI and 121 did not have LGI. The patients...
Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA
October 1, 2024
Mu-Hong Chen, Tung-Ping Su, Ju-Wei Hsu et al.
14 citations
The concurrent rise in the prevalence of autism and youth suicide has drawn public health and professional attention. The renaissance of psychedelics in psychiatry occurred in the early 21st century and may suggest a hope for the therapeutic effect of psychedelics in autism and suicide. The psychedelics' molecular entities are the compounds that modulate the serotoninergic and glutamatergic...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 13, 2024
Mu-Hong Chen, Shu-Li Cheng, Yu-Chen Kao et al.
8 citations
Objective Psilocybin-assisted therapy has shown promising efficacy on clinical depressive symptoms. However, diverse psychological support or psychotherapy was performed with psilocybin treatment. This study aimed to explore the association of psychological protocols with the efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy for depressive symptoms. Method Five major databases were systemic searched for...
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
July 8, 2024
Wei-Chen Lin, Mu-Hong Chen, Tung-Ping Su et al.
4 citations
Background: Low-dose ketamine infusion has been demonstrated to exert antisuicidal effects on patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and strong suicidal ideation. Although evidence suggests an association between hopelessness and suicidality, very few studies have investigated the antihopelessness effects of ketamine. Methods: This study included 84 patients with TRD and strong...
Journal of Affective Disorders
August 1, 2023
Mu-Hong Chen, Ya-Mei Bai, Hui-Ju Wu et al.
7 citations
OBJECTIVE Previous studies have found an association between klotho, an anti-aging hormone, and major depressive disorder. However, whether low-dose ketamine infusion alters klotho levels among patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) remains unknown. METHODS In total, 48 patients with TRD and strong suicidal ideation were randomly assigned to a single 0.5 mg/kg ketamine or 0.045...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
July 1, 2023
Mu-Hong Chen, Wei-Chen Lin, Cheng-Ta Li et al.
8 citations
BACKGROUND Evidence indicates that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) influence the pathophysiology of depression. However, whether low-dose ketamine regulates VEGF and MMP-9 levels and whether changes in VEGF and MMP-9 levels are associated with the antidepressant and antisuicidal effects of ketamine remained unclear. METHODS Forty-eight patients...
International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
March 26, 2023
T. Su, Cheng-Ta Li, Wei-Chen Lin et al.
48 citations
Abstract Background The benefits of low-dose ketamine for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and prominent suicidal ideation require further investigation. The effects of treatment refractoriness, the duration of the current depressive episode, and the number of prior antidepressant failures on ketamine efficacy also require clarification. Methods We recruited 84 outpatients...
Progress in Brain Research
2023
Mu-Hong Chen, Pei-Chi Tu, Tung-Ping Su
3 citations
Evidence has suggested that the modulation of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors (5-HTRs) via the psychedelic drugs, such as ketamine and psilocybin, rapidly alters the state of consciousness and the neuroplasticity. The United State Food and Drug Administration approved the indications of esketamine for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in 2019 and...
Molecular Psychiatry
September 7, 2022
Rebecca B Price, Nicholas Kissel, Andrew Baumeister et al.
80 citations
Abstract Depression is disabling and highly prevalent. Intravenous (IV) ketamine displays rapid-onset antidepressant properties, but little is known regarding which patients are most likely to benefit, limiting personalized prescriptions. We identified randomized controlled trials of IV ketamine that recruited individuals with a relevant psychiatric diagnosis (e.g., unipolar or bipolar...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
December 29, 2020
Mu-Hong Chen, Wan-Chen Chang, Wei-Chen Lin et al.
28 citations
Frontostriatal disconnectivity plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder. However, whether the baseline functional connectivity of the frontostriatal network could predict the treatment outcome of low-dose ketamine infusion remains unknown. In total, 48 patients with treatment-resistant depression were randomly divided into 3 treatment groups (a single-dose...
Journal of Affective Disorders
December 1, 2019
Mu-Hong Chen, Wei-Chen Lin, Pei-Chi Tu et al.
Increasing evidence suggests that infusion of a subanesthetic dose of ketamine exerts antidepressant and antisuicidal effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). In this investigation, we used the resting functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) to determine the effects of ketamine on the functional connectivity (FC) of prefrontal cortex (PFC)-related...
arXiv Preprint Archive
May 29, 2018
Zehong Cao, Chin-Teng Lin, Weiping Ding et al.
This study explores the responses to ketamine in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) using a wearable forehead electroencephalography (EEG) device. We recruited fifty-five outpatients with TRD who were randomised into three approximately equal-sized groups (A: 0.5 mg/kg ketamine; B: 0.2 mg/kg ketamine; and C: normal saline) under double-blind conditions. The ketamine responses...