Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology
2026
Manfred Klöbl, Thomas Liebe, Gregor Dörl et al.
Ketamine, a well-established antidepressant and dissociative anesthetic, is also used recreationally in the club and chemsex scene. Survey and qualitative data suggest that while ketamine facilitates chemsex encounters, it diminishes the intensity of the sexual experience. To investigate this phenomenon from a neuroscientific perspective while considering ketamine's sex-specific effects. Two...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
June 6, 2025
Benjamin Spurny-Dworak, Thomas Liebe, Samantha Graf et al.
2 citations
The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine has found broad application in the field of psychiatry. Due to its rapid antidepressant and anti-suicidal properties, it is used as a treatment for major depressive disorder. Furthermore, ketamine evokes dissociative and psychotropic states, which allows the modeling of schizophrenic symptoms. The thalamus, a main target for ketamine's...
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 1, 2025
Johan Saelens, Anna Gramser, Victoria Watzal et al.
47 citations
This systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) sought to compare different antidepressant treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in order to facilitate evidence-based choices. A literature search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase from inception until April 13th, 2023 identified randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with depression who had not responded to at...
medRxiv Preprint Server
March 21, 2025
Leo R. Silberbauer, Benjamin Eggerstorfer, Paul Michenthaler et al.
1 citation
preprint
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.
The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry
November 1, 2024
Samantha Graf, Gregor Dörl, Christian Milz et al.
2 citations
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...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
June 30, 2021
L. Stiernman, F. Grill, A. Hahn et al.
Significance A consistent finding from functional MRI (fMRI) of externally focused cognitive control is negative signal change in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), but it is unknown whether this reflects an increase of synaptic activity during rest periods or active suppression during task. Using hybrid PET-MRI, we show that task-positive fMRI responses align with increasing glucose...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 8, 2020
Leo R. Silberbauer, B. Spurny, P. Handschuh et al.
43 citations
Introduction Converging evidence suggests that ketamine elicits antidepressant effects via enhanced neuroplasticity precipitated by a surge of glutamate and modulation of GABA. Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) illustrates changes to cerebral glutamate and GABA immediately following ketamine administration during dissociation. However, few studies assess subacute changes in the...
Cerebral Cortex
September 6, 2018
Gregory M. James, Gregor Gryglewski, Thomas Vanicek et al.
16 citations
Parcellation of distinct areas in the cerebral cortex has a long history in neuroscience and is of great value for the study of brain function, specialization, and alterations in neuropsychiatric disorders. Analysis of cytoarchitectonical features has revealed their close association with molecular profiles based on protein density. This provides a rationale for the use of in vivo molecular...