Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with a significant portion of patients experiencing treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Ketamine, a rapid-acting antidepressant, has shown promise in alleviating symptoms of TRD and suicidality, but variability in treatment response remains a challenge. Identifying neuroimaging biomarkers that predict responsiveness...
The introduction of ketamine and its S-enantiomer, esketamine, has been one of the most consequential advances in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in recent decades, demonstrating that rapid and clinically meaningful antidepressant effects can occur within hours, even in patients who have not responded to conventional treatments.However, this advance has not resolved the clinical problem of...
In acute trials of intravenous and intranasal ketamine/esketamine, the rapid anti-suicidal effect appears to be at least partly independent of the overall antidepressant response. That question has, to our knowledge, never been examined in a real-world esketamine cohort followed for six months, nor in a sample enriched for comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD), a population excluded...
The occupancy-driven pharmacology model in psychopharmacology has guided drug discovery and development for decades, whereby the goal is stable receptor occupancy over an extended period with a direct relationship of drug exposure to pharmacodynamic and therapeutic response. Event-driven pharmacology (EDP) is a concept where the acute pharmacodynamic actions of a plastogen, a transient binding...
Research SquareJuly 9, 2026Samuel Westenhöfer, Yamina Ehrt, Barbora Provaznikova et al.
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Abstract Background : Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is associated with substantial clinical and socioeconomic burden. Intranasal esketamine has shown efficacy for TRD in clinical trials and real-world studies. However, evidence on optimal maintenance scheduling is limited. We therefore investigated whether two maintenance schedules differing in their inter-dose intervals were associated...
Intravenous ketamine is used for treatment-resistant depression, with structured guidelines supporting its use, but requires careful patient monitoring due to potential side effects and variable efficacy.
Frontiers in PsychiatryJuly 9, 2026Patrice A. Bellanti, Jordan Lewis, Brian Seifferth et al.
Introduction Intravenous (IV) ketamine and intranasal esketamine are NMDA receptor antagonists used for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Both have demonstrated efficacy in controlled trials, but observational evidence from real-world community settings is limited. Methods We conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study of adults aged 18 to 65 receiving induction therapy for TRD...
Background Substance use disorders (SUDs) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD) remain a major global health challenge, marked by high relapse rates and limited long-term effectiveness of existing treatments. Ketamine, a glutamatergic modulator with rapid neuroplastic effects, has emerged as a novel intervention for TRD and is increasingly investigated as an adjunctive treatment for...
Introduction: While the rapid and robust effects of ketamine on depressive symptoms in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) have been demonstrated, the influence of ketamine treatment on cognitive function has not yet been fully elucidated. We aimed to evaluate the effects of ketamine treatment on cognitive function as part of a study that investigated the efficacy of repeated ketamine...