Interaction of Sex and Age on the Dissociative Effects of Ketamine Action in Young Healthy Participants
Birgit Derntl, J. Hornung, Z. Sen, Lejla Colic, Meng Li, Martin Walter
Frontiers in Neuroscience June 18, 2019 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00616 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 69 |
| Population | Healthy subjects aged 18 to 30 years (early adulthood) |
| Interventions | Ketamine Placebo |
| Measures | Clinician Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS) |
| Topics | Esketamine Ketamine |
| Key findings | Ketamine increased dissociative symptoms compared with placebo. Among ketamine recipients, men reported significantly more depersonalization and amnestic symptoms than women, and only men showed fewer dissociative symptoms with increasing age. The authors suggest this may indicate a sex-specific protective effect of higher age, possibly related to delayed brain maturation in men. |
Abstract
Ketamine is a drug that reduces depressive and elicits schizophrenia-like symptoms in humans. However, it is largely unexplored whether women and men differ with respect to ketamine-action and whether age contributes to drug-effects. In this study we assessed dissociative symptoms via the Clinician Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS) in a total of 69 healthy subjects aged between 18 and 30 years (early adulthood) after ketamine or placebo infusion. Dissociative symptoms were generally increased only in the ketamine group post-infusion. Specifically, within the ketamine group, men reported significantly more depersonalization and amnestic symptoms than women. Furthermore, with rising age only men were less affected overall with respect to dissociative symptoms. This suggests a sex-specific protective effect of higher age which may be due to delayed brain maturation in men compared to women. We conclude that it is crucial to include sex and age in studies of drug effects in general and of ketamine-action in specific to tailor more efficient psychiatric treatments. Clinical Trial Registration: EU Clinical Trials Register (EudraCT), trial number: 2010-023414-31.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on ketamine, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subanesthetic Effects of the Noncompetitive NMDA Antagonist, Ketamine, in Humans Healthy human subjects recruited from the community | 1994 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 19 |
| Antidepressant Efficacy of Ketamine in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: A Two-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Patients with treatment-resistant major depression experiencing a major depressive episode | 2013 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 73 |
| Remifentanil-induced Postoperative Hyperalgesia and Its Prevention with Small-dose Ketamine Patients undergoing major abdominal surgery | 2005 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 75 |
| Efficacy of Intravenous Ketamine for Treatment of Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Patients with chronic PTSD related to a range of trauma exposures | 2014 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 41 |
| Ketamine-Induced Deficits in Auditory and Visual Context-Dependent Processing in Healthy Volunteers Healthy volunteers | 2000 | Single-blind placebo-controlled study | n = 20 |
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- Glutamate plus glutamine to GABA ratio as a predictor of ketamine response in treatment-resistant depression: A double-blind, randomized, open-label extension study. Journal of Affective Disorders August 15, 2025
- Cortical thickness of the posterior cingulate cortex is associated with the ketamine-induced altered sense of self: An ultra-high field MRI study. Journal of Psychiatric Research April 1, 2024
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Cites 21
- Subanesthetic Effects of the Noncompetitive NMDA Antagonist, Ketamine, in Humans Archives of General Psychiatry March 1, 1994
- NMDAR inhibition-independent antidepressant actions of ketamine metabolites Nature April 24, 2016
- Antidepressant Efficacy of Ketamine in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: A Two-Site Randomized Controlled Trial American Journal of Psychiatry August 28, 2013
- Measurement of dissociative states with the Clinician‐Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS) Journal of Traumatic Stress 1998
- Ketamine – More mechanisms of action than just NMDA blockade Trends in Anaesthesia and Critical Care March 22, 2014
and 16 more in the library