Discover Mental Health
October 27, 2026
Safa Rubaye, Aditya Shah, Waleed Aldulaimy et al.
Ketamine is an important intervention for severe depression and trauma-related psychopathology, but the optimal way to provide therapeutic support during treatment remains unclear. Although ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is clinically appealing, maintaining therapist presence throughout every dosing session can be logistically difficult. Virtual reality (VR) may offer a structured, scalable,...
Preprints.org
October 27, 2026
Davis Carter, Ian Reardon, Jack Swain et al.
preprint
Background. The nine items of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) index distinct symptom dimensions of major depressive disorder. Depression treatment is typically reported as change in the total score, so how individual symptom dimensions move during a rapid-acting treatment is seldom characterized. Ketamine is a rapid-acting glutamatergic antidepressant, but item-level trajectories...
Psychopharmacology
October 26, 2026
Jordi Jornet-Plaza, Carles Colom-Rocha, M Julia García-Fuster
Rationale Ketamine has emerged as a rapid-acting antidepressant drug for treatment-resistant depression in adults and is currently evaluated for adolescent depression. However, the long-term effects of ketamine exposure during this period of brain development remain unclear, particularly regarding addiction liability. Objectives To investigate whether repeated ketamine exposure during...
Journal of Affective Disorders
October 26, 2026
Ying-Jay Liou, Li-Kai Cheng, Wei-Chen Lin et al.
Several studies have reported entropy reductions in regions of the brain associated with affective-regulatory and reward- and motivation-related processes in patients with major depressive disorder. However, whether low-dose ketamine modulates this reduction remains unclear. We analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from two single-infusion low-dose ketamine trials....
Research Square
October 23, 2026
Clara De Oliveira Lapa, Mario F Juruena, Danilo Costa Pereira et al.
preprint
Abstract Background Intranasal esketamine is an approved therapy for treatment-resistant depression and is recognized for its rapid and effective antidepressant effects. Although ketamine-associated cystitis has been documented in recreational users, the urinary safety profile of therapeutic esketamine remains incompletely characterized. Functional lower urinary tract disturbances suggestive of...
Psychiatric Services
October 22, 2026
Michael Lebenbaum, Benoit H. Mulsant, Sagar V Parikh et al.
OBJECTIVE: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a highly effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression; however, its use has been limited partly because of concerns about cognitive side effects. Evidence for the sustained (>1 month) efficacy of ketamine versus ECT for treatment-resistant depression has only recently been demonstrated. This study aimed to examine the...
Journal of Affective Disorders
October 21, 2026
Yamina Ehrt-Schäfer, Georgios Schoretsanitis, Erich Seifritz et al.
Intranasal (es)ketamine has shown efficacy in therapy of treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, its effects on suicidality have not been fully elucidated. We conducted a retrospective longitudinal cohort study of 80 patients affected by TRD, treated with intranasal (es)ketamine. Suicidality was assessed using item 10 of the clinician-rated Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
October 21, 2026
preprint
Ketamine shows moderate efficacy as a rapid-acting treatment for treatment-resistant depression, including bipolar depression, with evidence supporting its use mainly in treatment-resistant cases. Monitoring and cautious patient selection are necessary due to limited long-term safety data.
World Journal of Psychiatry
October 21, 2026
Xiao-ge Han, Qibin Chen, Su Min et al.
BACKGROUNDEvidence for adjunctive subanesthetic-dose esketamine during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) is limited.Suicidal ideation is a critical early treatment target in this population.We hypothesized that adjunctive subanesthetic-dose esketamine during ECT would accelerate the reduction in suicidal ideation and improve early clinical...
Current Biology
October 19, 2026
John H. Krystal
Ketamine's robust antidepressant effects often appear twenty-four hours after a single dose. A new study now provides evidence suggesting that this timepoint coincides with a quieting of habenula activation and reductions in aversive learning in healthy subjects.