Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of suicide in the world. Monoamine-based antidepressant drugs are a primary line of treatment for this mental disorder, although the delayed response and incomplete efficacy in some patients highlight the need for improved therapeutic approaches. Over the past two decades, ketamine has shown rapid onset with sustained (up to several days)...
Acute (R,S)-ketamine (ketamine) administration produces rapid antidepressant effects that in some patients can be sustained for several days to more than week. Ketamine blocks NMDA receptors to elicit specific downstream signaling that induces a novel form of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus that has been linked to the rapid antidepressant action. These signaling events lead to subsequent...