Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist that has antidepressant and antisuicidal effects, as shown by multiple studies done over the past two decades, that can be used effectively in the management of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved intranasal (S)-ketamine in combination with an oral antidepressant for TRD....
BACKGROUND: Preliminary evidence suggests intravenous ketamine has rapid effects on suicidal cognition, making it an attractive candidate for depressed patients at imminent risk of suicide. In the first randomized controlled trial of ketamine using an anesthetic control condition, we tested ketamine's acute effects on explicit suicidal cognition and a performance-based index of implicit...
OBJECTIVE: Ketamine, a glutamate N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, has shown rapid antidepressant effects, but small study groups and inadequate control conditions in prior studies have precluded a definitive conclusion. The authors evaluated the rapid antidepressant efficacy of ketamine in a large group of patients with treatment-resistant major depression. METHOD: This was a...