The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry
September 6, 2026
Balwinder Singh, Siamak MahmoudianDehkordi, Jennifer L. Vande Voort et al.
OBJECTIVE: Ketamine is a rapid-acting antidepressant with an incompletely understood mechanism of action. Pharmacometabolomics can identify pathways underlying its effects and response variability. Using data from the Bio-K trial (NCT03156504), a multisite open-label study, we characterised metabolomic signatures of intravenous (IV) racemic ketamine in adults with treatment-resistant depression...
Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology
December 4, 2025
Charles Dodds, Rachelle Dawson, Alexander Lim et al.
3 citations
Novel interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) leverage the psychoactive properties of psychedelic compounds, such as ketamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and psilocybin, which may overcome limitations of conventional treatments. Through the modulation of pathways involved in synaptic plasticity, psychedelic interventions are believed to enhance the mechanisms underlying...
Translational Psychiatry
November 25, 2021
Blair J. Price, Brooke Morath, Mayo Clinic et al.
Lithium, a mood stabilizer and common adjunctive treatment for refractory depression, shares overlapping mechanisms of action with ketamine and enhances the duration of ketamine’s antidepressant actions in rodent models at sub-therapeutic doses. Yet, in a recent clinical trial, lithium co-treatment with ketamine failed to improve antidepressant outcomes in subjects previously shown to respond...
Translational Psychiatry
June 26, 2020
Paulo R Shiroma, Paul Thuras, Joseph Wels et al.
112 citations
The strategy of repeated ketamine in open-label and saline-control studies of treatment-resistant depression suggested greater antidepressant response beyond a single ketamine. However, consensus guideline stated the lack of evidence to support frequent ketamine administration. We compared the efficacy and safety of single vs. six repeated ketamine using midazolam as active placebo. Subjects...
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology
September 2018
Kathryn R. Cullen, Palistha Amatya, Mark G Roback et al.
Novel interventions for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in adolescents are urgently needed. Ketamine has been studied in adults with TRD, but little information is available for adolescents. This study investigated efficacy and tolerability of intravenous ketamine in adolescents with TRD, and explored clinical response predictors. Adolescents, 12-18 years of age, with TRD (failure to...
Journal of Affective Disorders
December 2016
Jennifer L. Vande Voort, Robert J Morgan, Simon Kung et al.
Little is known about the antidepressive effects of repeated intravenous ketamine infusions beyond the acute phase of treatment in patients with refractory depression. Twelve subjects with treatment-resistant non-psychotic unipolar or bipolar major depression and suicidal ideation were given repeated (up to 6) thrice-weekly acute-phase intravenous infusions of ketamine (0.5mg/kg, administered...
Depression and Anxiety
August 2016
William V Bobo, Jennifer L. Vande Voort, Paul E Croarkin et al.
There is an urgent need for more rapidly effective pharmacotherapies for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (BP) that are efficacious and tolerable for depressed patients who respond poorly to conventional treatments. Multiple controlled trials have now demonstrated a rapid, nonsustained antidepressive response to a single intravenous infusion of ketamine. Early controlled studies...