Ketamine is a powerful and rapid-acting antidepressant but has no regulatory authorization for any psychiatric illness. The S-enantiomer of ketamine, esketamine, was approved by the FDA in 2019 as adjunctive therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Substantial controversy exists as to whether there is a significant clinical difference between intravenous (IV) ketamine racemate and intranasal...
Patients undergoing multiple wound repair surgeries often develop moderate-to-severe anxiety and depression. However, there is a lack of effective rapid emotional intervention strategies during the perioperative period. This multi-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involved 130 adult patients (65 in the esketamine group and 65 in the placebo group). Participants were...
Combined low-dose dexmedetomidine and esketamine during cesarean section provides a short-term improvement in early postpartum depressive symptoms, reduces intraoperative neuropsychiatric adverse events, and enhances maternal satisfaction, with a favorable maternal and neonatal safety profile.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Bipolar Depression represent significant global health burdens because about one-third of patients who receive standard monoaminergic antidepressant treatment fail to achieve remission. The population with Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) needs assistance because they deal with dangerous suicide risks and struggle with their daily activities. The review...
Esketamine is a novel antidepressant approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019, but comprehensive studies on the post-marketing safety evaluation of esketamine across age groups remain limited. The objective of this study is to provide the age-based pharmacovigilance profile of esketamine and the potential toxicological mechanisms, which may provide insights to inform the...
Correction to: European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (2026) 82:13 h t t p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 0 0 7 / s 0 0 2 2 8 -0 2 5 -0 3 9 5 4 -z At page 13, the correct version of " 60 vs. 3 days, p < 0.001, Table 3" is "60 vs. 2 days, p < 0.001, Table 3).The original article can be found online at h t t p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 0 0 7 / s 0 0 2 2 8 -0 2 5 -0 3 9 5 4 -z
Objective: While inflammatory dysregulation is well-documented in major depressive disorder (MDD), its response to esketamine treatment in adolescents remains poorly understood. We aimed to examine the effects of esketamine on the inflammatory cytokines in adolescent MDD. Methods: This randomized, double-blind trial assigned 49 adolescents with MDD to receive three infusions of esketamine or...
Background/Objectives: Intranasal esketamine has emerged as an effective treatment for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), providing rapid symptom relief when conventional antidepressant strategies fail. While its pharmacological efficacy has been demonstrated in randomized controlled trials, less attention has been paid to the organizational, relational, and multidisciplinary...
1. Esketamine as monotherapy or adjunct to conventional antidepressants is proven efficacious in clinical trials in adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and depression with high risk of...
Ketamine, esketamine, rTMS and ECT are associated with reductions in SI in persons with MDD, with the strongest evidence from randomized controlled trials supporting rapid, short-term effects, particularly for ketamine and esketamine. Further characterization and differentiation of the durability of antisuicidal effects of the aforementioned interventions requires investigation in large-scale,...
Medical Science MonitorFebruary 18, 2026Łukasz Grabarczyk, Sophia Rebekka Wolfermann, Hubert Oniszczuk et al.
Conventional antidepressant drugs are effective in only approximately 50% of patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Ketamine, a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, offers a promising alternative with an exceptionally rapid antidepressant effect. Although its efficacy in the general TRD population is well established, its use in specific patient subpopulations...
Molecular PsychiatryFebruary 18, 2026Marie Huc, Sara Siddiqi, Mysa Myers et al.1 citation
Esketamine has emerged as a fast-acting antidepressant option for individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Yet, little is known about how sex-assigned-at-birth shapes symptom-specific responses to these interventions, a critical gap in the move toward precision psychiatry. To address this gap, we conducted a pooled analysis of five randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled...
Background: Esketamine nasal spray represents the first FDA approved treatment with a novel mechanism of action for treatment resistant depression (TRD) in decades. While its efficacy has been well established, a thorough understanding of the adverse effect profile remains essential for informed clinical decision making and optimal patient safety. We therefore undertook this systematic review...
BMC PsychiatryFebruary 9, 2026Song-Yuan Liu, Rong Huang, Zhuang Liu et al.
BACKGROUND: In recent years, evidence has suggested that subanesthetic doses of esketamine may have beneficial effects on perioperative anxiety and depression. Concurrently, various factors contribute to a high incidence of perioperative depression and anxiety in the breast cancer patient population. This study aimed to explore the impact of preoperative induction and intraoperative maintenance...
Background/Objectives: Esketamine-related dissociation is a transient, pharmacologically induced altered state that differs from the trait-like pathological dissociation typically observed in trauma-related conditions. While most studies have quantified these effects using the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS), patients' subjective phenomenology and meaning-making remain...
Major Depressive Disorder is a common and disabling psychiatric illness whose pharmacological treatment options have historically been characterized by relatively low response rates. "Treatment-resistant depression" has emerged to describe patients whose depressive symptoms fail to respond to multiple courses of oral antidepressant medications. In 2019, the FDA approved intranasal esketamine as...
Ketamine and esketamine have been approved as an adjunctive therapy for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder with acute suicidal ideation and behavior in adults. The current paper aimed to systematically review the available data on their efficacy in children and adolescents. The MEDLINE was searched with the keyword 'esketamine' on July 5th, 2024 (by following the PRISMA statement)....
Major depressive disorder (MDD) remains a leading global cause of disability, with substantial clinical and societal burden. Despite the wide availability of antidepressants, many patients experience inadequate response, partial remission, or treatment-resistant depression. Emerging pharmacological options beyond traditional monoaminergic agents have shown promise in phase 3 clinical trials,...
Background: This study aimed to estimate the 95% effective dose (ED95) of ciprofol when combined with esketamine or sufentanil in elderly patients undergoing endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), and to explore the associated clinical and safety profiles of these sedation strategies. Methods: This study was conducted in two phases. In Phase 1, 44 patients aged 65– 80 years undergoing ESD were...
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of a multimodal rapid anti-depression therapy that combines esketamine treatment with dexmedetomidine patient-controlled sleep (PCSL) in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). We retrospectively included 233 patients with TRD who received the multimodal treatment. Baseline clinical characteristics were collected. Follow-up assessments were...