Journal of Neuroendocrinology
2026
Hiroe Hu, Yoojin Lee, Alaina N Tillman et al.
1 citation
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) modulates stress responsivity and social-affective behaviors, but its role in mood and trauma-related disorders remains poorly defined due to challenges in peripheral measurement. This study used copeptin, a stable, reliable, and well-validated surrogate marker of AVP secretion, to assess vasopressinergic function in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals...
medRxiv
August 28, 2025
Franziska Stadler, Johan Saelens, Ioline D. Henter et al.
preprint
This international online study (N=759) examined the acute, subacute, and long-term effects of psychedelic drug use on cognitive performance and mental health. Participants completed cognitive tasks assessing working memory, selective attention, and visual/spatial perception, as well as questionnaires assessing mental health outcomes and quality of life. Based on self-reported substance use,...
Psychiatry Research
July 1, 2025
Hiroe Hu, Alaina N Tillman, Miyu Fujita et al.
2 citations
Subanesthetic-dose ketamine has recently been reported to improve hedonic pleasures associated with social interactions and altruism in individuals with treatment-resistant depression. However, whether ketamine-among other glutamate receptor modulators-also improves empathy and/or prosocial behavior in humans remains unknown. Under a framework grounded in neurobiology that proposes that...
Journal of Affective Disorders
March 1, 2025
Elizabeth D. Ballard, Lucinda Neely, Laura Waldman et al.
4 citations
This analysis sought to identify potential clinical targets for the suicide crisis. Characteristics of a useful clinical target include elevation at the time of suicide crisis and responsiveness to rapid-acting interventions. Suicidal ideation (SI), depression, and hopelessness were hypothesized to meet these criteria. Participants were 118 adults across the continuum of suicide risk, including...
Journal of Affective Disorders
July 15, 2024
Kelly T Hurst, Abigail Vogeley, Deanna K Greenstein et al.
8 citations
Participants who received ketamine at the NIMH were among the first to receive ketamine for depression in controlled clinical trials, providing a unique opportunity to assess long-term outcomes. This analysis evaluated the relationship between participating in a ketamine clinical trial and subsequent ketamine/esketamine use after leaving the research setting. Participants seen within the NIMH...
Translational Psychiatry
June 4, 2024
Elizabeth D. Ballard, Deanna K Greenstein, Philip T Reiss et al.
16 citations
The glutamatergic modulator ketamine is associated with changes in sleep, depression, and suicidal ideation (SI). This study sought to evaluate differences in arousal-related sleep metrics between 36 individuals with treatment-resistant major depression (TRD) and 25 healthy volunteers (HVs). It also sought to determine whether ketamine normalizes arousal in individuals with TRD and whether...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
2023
Christian Yavorsky, Elizabeth D. Ballard, Mark Opler et al.
7 citations
The novel mechanisms of action (MOA) derived from some recently introduced molecular targets have led to regulatory approvals for rapid acting antidepressants (RAADs) that can generate responses within hours or days, rather than weeks or months. These novel targets include the N-methyl-D-glutamate receptor antagonist ketamine, along with its enantiomers and various derivatives, and the...
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...
Nat Commun
December 22, 2020
Elizabeth D. Ballard, Carlos A. Zarate
10 citations
Ketamine produces immediate antidepressant effects and has inspired research into next-generation treatments. Ketamine also has short term dissociative effects, in which individuals report altered consciousness and perceptions of themselves and their environment. However, whether ketamine's dissociative side effects are necessary for its antidepressant effects remains unclear. This perspective...
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
July 17, 2020
Lawrence T. Park, David A. Luckenbaugh, Steven Pennybaker et al.
23 citations
OBJECTIVE: Ketamine's effects on different dimensions of depressive symptomatology, including typical/melancholic and atypical depression, remain largely unknown. This study examined the effects of a single intravenous dose of ketamine on general depressive symptoms (measured using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), typical/melancholic symptoms (measured using the MADRS5),...
Advances in pharmacology (San Diego, Calif.)
2020
Bashkim Kadriu, Elizabeth D. Ballard, Ioline D. Henter et al.
35 citations
As a field, psychiatry is undergoing an exciting paradigm shift toward early identification and intervention that will likely minimize both the burden associated with severe mental illnesses as well as their duration. In this context, the rapid-acting antidepressant ketamine has revolutionized our understanding of antidepressant response and greatly expanded the pharmacologic armamentarium for...
Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
October 1, 2018
Wallace C. Duncan, Elizabeth E. Slonena, Nadia S. Hejazi et al.
17 citations
PURPOSE: This study examined the links between 24-hour activity patterns (specifically, amplitude and timing of wrist activity) and the persisting qualities of clinical antidepressant response to the glutamatergic modulator ketamine. METHODS: Twenty-four-hour activity patterns were compared across 5 days of 24-hour activity rhythms in patients with major depressive disorder who displayed either...
Molecular Psychiatry
February 27, 2018
Allison C. Nugent, Elizabeth D. Ballard, T. Gould et al.
254 citations
Ketamine’s mechanism of action was assessed using gamma power from magnetoencephalography (MEG) as a proxy measure for homeostatic balance in 35 unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 25 healthy controls enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized cross-over trial of 0.5 mg/kg ketamine. MDD subjects showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms,...
Journal of Affective Disorders
February 17, 2018
Mark J. Niciu, Bridget J. Shovestul, Brittany A. Jaso et al.
134 citations
Background Ketamine induces rapid and robust antidepressant effects, and many patients also describe dissociation, which is associated with antidepressant response. This follow-up study investigated whether antidepressant efficacy is uniquely related to dissociative symptom clusters. Methods Treatment-resistant patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD) (n=126) drawn...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
October 17, 2017
Mark J. Niciu, Nicolas D. Iadarola, Dipavo Banerjee et al.
23 citations
BACKGROUND: This study sought to reproduce, in a larger sample, previous findings of a correlation between smaller raw 3-Tesla (3T) hippocampal volumes and improved antidepressant efficacy of ketamine in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). A secondary analysis stratified subjects according to functional BDNF rs6265 (val66met) genotype. METHODS: Unmedicated subjects with...
American Journal of Psychiatry
October 3, 2017
S. Wilkinson, Elizabeth D. Ballard, Michael H. Bloch et al.
680 citations
Objective Suicide is a public health crisis with limited treatment options. We conducted a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis examining the effects of a single dose of ketamine on suicidal ideation. Method Individual participant data were obtained from 10 of 11 identified comparison intervention studies (using either saline or midazolam as control). The analysis...
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
December 6, 2016
Jennifer L. Vande Voort, Elizabeth D. Ballard, David A. Luckenbaugh et al.
67 citations
OBJECTIVE: Insomnia and disrupted sleep are associated with increased risk of suicide. The N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonist ketamine has been associated with reduced suicidal thoughts, but the mechanism of action is unknown. This study sought to evaluate differences in nocturnal wakefulness in depressed individuals who did and did not have an antisuicidal response to ketamine. METHODS:...
Current Neuropharmacology
March 25, 2016
Brittany A. Jaso, Mark J. Niciu, Nicolas D. Iadarola et al.
97 citations
Current pharmacotherapies for major depressive disorder (MDD) have a distinct lag of onset that can prolong distress and impairment for patients, and realworld effectiveness trials further suggest that antidepressant efficacy is limited in many patients. All currently approved antidepressant medications for MDD act primarily through monoaminergic mechanisms, e.g., receptor/reuptake agonists or...
Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease
April 13, 2015
Nicolas D. Iadarola, Mark J. Niciu, Erica M. Richards et al.
202 citations
Current pharmacotherapies for major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar depression (BDep) have a distinct lag of onset that can generate great distress and impairment in patients. Furthermore, as demonstrated by several real-world effectiveness trials, their efficacy is limited. All approved antidepressant medications for MDD primarily act through monoaminergic mechanisms, agonists or...
Neural Plasticity
2015
Annie J. Xu, Mark J. Niciu, Nancy B. Lundin et al.
27 citations
Ketamine and lithium both inhibit glycogen synthase kinase 3. In addition, lithium and ketamine have synergistic antidepressant-like effects at individually subeffective doses in rodents. We hypothesized that ketamine's antidepressant effects would be improved by therapeutic doses of lithium versus valproate and that serum lithium levels would positively correlate with ketamine's antidepressant...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
December 19, 2014
Mark J. Niciu, David A. Luckenbaugh, Dawn F. Ionescu et al.
55 citations
BACKGROUND: A single subanesthetic infusion of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine has rapid and potent antidepressant properties in treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TRD). As a family history of an alcohol use disorder is a positive predictor of ketamine's antidepressant response and the strength of the association increases over time, we hypothesized that...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
October 31, 2014
Elizabeth D. Ballard, Níall Lally, Allison C. Nugent et al.
74 citations
BACKGROUND: The neural correlates of suicidal ideation and its reduction after treatment are unknown. We hypothesized that increased regional cerebral glucose metabolism in the infralimbic cortex (Brodmann area 25), amygdala, and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex would be associated with suicidal ideation and its reduction after ketamine infusion. METHODS: Medication-free patients (n=19) with...