bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
February 10, 2026
Erdem Pulcu, Sara Costi, Pilar Artiach-Hortelano et al.
Abstract Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist with rapid-antidepressant properties when administered at a sub-anesthetic dose. Preclinical models indicate that a direct injection of ketamine into lateral habenula (Hb), a small midbrain structure with an evolutionarily preserved role in aversive learning across mammals, can rapidly relieve depression-like behavior. However, there is limited...
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
October 8, 2021
Rebecca L. Dean, Tahnee Marquardt, Claudia C. Hurducas et al.
41 citations
BACKGROUND Glutamergic system dysfunction has been implicated in the pathophysiology of bipolar depression. This is an update of the 2015 Cochrane Review for the use of glutamate receptor modulators for depression in bipolar disorder. OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the effects of ketamine and other glutamate receptor modulators in alleviating the acute symptoms of depression in people with bipolar...
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
September 12, 2021
Rebecca L. Dean, Claudia C. Hurducas, Keith Hawton et al.
97 citations
BACKGROUND Many studies have recently been conducted to assess the antidepressant efficacy of glutamate modification in mood disorders. This is an update of a review first published in 2015 focusing on the use of glutamate receptor modulators in unipolar depression. OBJECTIVES To assess the effects - and review the acceptability and tolerability - of ketamine and other glutamate receptor...
Psychological Medicine
August 25, 2017
Philip J. Cowen
38 citations
Pragmatic studies indicate that a substantial number of depressed patients do not remit with current first-line antidepressant treatments and after two failed treatment steps the chance of remission with subsequent therapies is around 15%. This paper focuses on current evidence for pharmacological treatments in resistant depression as well as possible future developments. For patients who have...
The Lancet Psychiatry
May 17, 2016
Philip J. Cowen
13 citations
"Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question". To resolve the issue, Alice ate the mushroom; in more recent times, however, experimentation with psilocybin-containing magic mushrooms has been strongly discouraged. In the UK, in 2005, magic mushrooms...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
May 2012
Matthew J Taylor, Eleanor R Tiangga, Roísín Ní Mhuircheartaigh et al.
Ketamine is a N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) antagonist that has been associated with temporary clinical improvement in patients with depression. Studies using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) have shown that major depression is associated with decreased levels of glutamate and glutamine (Glx) in the anterior cingulate cortex, which normalize with clinical recovery. The present study...
The British Journal of Psychiatry
March 31, 2009
Sudhakar Selvaraj, Rosa Hoshi, Zubin Bhagwagar et al.
59 citations
Background Animal experimental studies have prompted concerns that widespread use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ‘ecstasy’) by young people may pose a major public health problem in terms of persistent serotonin neurotoxicity. Aims To determine the status of brain serotonin neurons in a group of abstinent MDMA users. Method We assessed the integrity of brain serotonin neurons by...
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
April 1, 1985
Michael Schächter, David P. Geaney, Dg Grahame‐smith et al.
20 citations
Using a [3H]‐lysergic acid diethylamide [(3H]‐LSD) binding technique, platelet 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT) receptor number and affinity were compared in schizophrenics treated with depot thioxanthenes and phenothiazines and controls. There was an approximately 30% increase in platelet receptor number (Bmax) in the patient group. There was a decrease in affinity (increase in Kd) of about 30% in...