Ketamine improves motivation-related symptoms in depression but simultaneously elicits similar symptoms in healthy individuals, suggesting that it might have different effects in health and disease. This study examined whether ketamine affects the brain’s fronto-striatal system, which is known to drive motivational behavior. The study also assessed whether inflammatory mechanisms—which are...
Significance Standard antidepressant treatments require weeks to show effectiveness. A single subanesthetic dose of ketamine rapidly attenuates many clinical signs and symptoms of depression; however, ketamine treatment also has many adverse effects, including dissociation and potential for abuse, which are mediated by NMDA glutamate receptor (NMDAR) inhibition. Previous work has revealed that...
Major depressive disorder affects around 16 per cent of the world population at some point in their lives. Despite the availability of numerous monoaminergic-based antidepressants, most patients require several weeks, if not months, to respond to these treatments, and many patients never attain sustained remission of their symptoms. The non-competitive, glutamatergic NMDAR (N-methyl-d-aspartate...