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Methoxetamine: from drug of abuse to rapid-acting antidepressant.

Maurizio Coppola, Raffaella Mondola

Medical Hypotheses October 1, 2012 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2012.07.002 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Key points Proposes that methoxetamine may produce rapid antidepressant effects in patients with resistant and non-resistant unipolar and bipolar depression, based on its pharmacodynamic similarities to ketamine and its receptor activity profile.

Abstract

Methoxetamine is a dissociative anaesthetic showing pharmacodynamic similarities with its analogue ketamine, a medication with demonstrated rapid-acting antidepressant effects. Like ketamine and other arylcyclohexylamine compounds, methoxetamine is thought to be both a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist and a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Furthermore, it acts as an agonist at dopamine D2, serotonin 5HT2, muscarinic cholinergic, sigma-1, opioid mu and k receptors. The hypothesis is that methoxetamine can produce rapid antidepressant effects in patients with resistant and non-resistant unipolar and bipolar depression.

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