Breaking through anhedonia: How ketamine reignites the drive for rewards.
Colleen A McClung
Neuron May 7, 2025 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.03.025 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Nucleus accumbens D1 dopamine receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs) in a stress model |
| Intervention | Ketamine |
| Topics | Esketamine Ketamine |
| Keywords | Mental health Psychopharmacology Addiction treatment Brain chemistry |
| Key findings | Ketamine reverses stress-induced changes in excitatory synapses in nucleus accumbens D1-MSNs, and these changes are necessary for the treatment of anhedonia-like behavior. |
Abstract
In this issue of Neuron, Pignatelli et al.1 find that ketamine reverses stress-induced changes in excitatory synapses in nucleus accumbens D1 dopamine receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs) and that these changes are necessary for the treatment of anhedonia-like behavior.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on ketamine, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ketamine activates psychosis and alters limbic blood flow in schizophrenia Schizophrenic individuals | 1995 | Experimental study | |
| The spectral exponent of the resting EEG indexes the presence of consciousness during unresponsiveness induced by propofol, xenon, and ketamine Healthy participants | 2019 | Controlled experimental study | n = 15 |
| Ketamine Increases Human Motor Cortex Excitability to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Normal human subjects | 2003 | Experimental study | n = 7 |
| Evidence that Subanesthetic Doses of Ketamine Cause Sustained Disruptions of NMDA and AMPA-Mediated Frontoparietal Connectivity in Humans Human participants | 2015 | Experimental study | |
| Simultaneous population pharmacokinetic modelling of ketamine and three major metabolites in patients with treatment‐resistant bipolar depression Patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression | 2012 | Population pharmacokinetic analysis | n = 9 |