Introduction: Ketamine was used for the first time in 1962 in Veterinary Medicine as an anesthetic and analgesic drug. For decades it was used as a narcotic substance, more widely known as “Special K”, i.e. a recreational drug. In recent years, the scientific community has focused on its remarkable and immediate therapeutic effect on depressed patients, who showed a remission of symptoms in a...
Treatment-resistant depressionGiven the current focus on mental health especially among dental practitioners, one of the issues we may see is an increase in treatment-resistant depression (TRD).In the management of depression, the ultimate therapeutic goal is remission, but Souery et al (J Clin Psych 2006, 67 (suppl 6): 16-22) suggested that only 60%-70% of patients respond to the first line...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating illness that affects millions of people worldwide. Currently available antidepressants often take weeks to months to reach their full effect, which leads to an increased risk of suicidal behavior in patients with MMD. Intranasally, esketamine has emerged as an alternative to current antidepressants because of its rapid onset and long-lasting...
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a term used to describe a particular type of major depressive disorder (MDD). There is no consensus about what defines TRD, with various studies describing between 1 and 4 failures of antidepressant therapies, with or without electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). That is why TRD is such a growing concern among clinicians and researchers, and it explains the...
Abstract S-ketamine, a N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, and psilocybin, a 5-hydroxy-tryptamine (serotonin) 2A receptor (5-HT 2A R) agonist, are reported as effective rapid-acting antidepressants. Both compounds increase glutamate signalling and evoke cortical hyperexcitation. S-ketamine induces neurotoxicity especially in the retrosplenial cortex (Olney’s lesions). Whether...
Ketamine, initially developed as a safer alternative to phencyclidine, has emerged as a groundbreaking treatment in psychiatric practice. It gained popularity after its approval by the FDA in 1970 for its analgesic properties and ability to induce altered consciousness while maintaining vital functions. In the 1990s, researchers discovered its rapid and potent antidepressant effects, especially...
Ketamine is a rapid-acting antidepressant that also influences neural reactivity to affective stimuli. However, the effect of ketamine on behavioral affective reactivity is yet to be elucidated. The affect-modulated startle reflex paradigm (AMSR) allows examining the valence-specific aspects of behavioral affective reactivity. We hypothesized that ketamine alters the modulation of the startle...
Among the greatest unmet needs in major depressive disorder (MDD) is a lack of effective pharmacotherapies for patients who do not respond to first- and second-line antidepressant medications. After decades of muted progress, optimism regarding the future of MDD therapy rose after scientists serendipitously uncovered the antidepressant effects of ketamine. The discovery of ketamine's...
Abstract Ketamine, including esketamine, is an effective treatment for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD); however, its long-term efficacy in real-world populations remains poorly characterized. This is a retrospective cohort study using TriNetX US Collaborative Network, a platform aggregating electronic health records (EHRs) data from 93 million patients from 56 health care...