Introduction Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. Over the course of a lifetime, several percent of the adult population suffers from depression. There are many treatments for depression like pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. In this article, we wanted to focus on the effectiveness of ketamine in treating depression. Aim of study The study aimed to summarize the available...
The mechanisms underlying esketamine's therapeutic effects remain elusive. The study aimed to explore the impact of single esketamine treatment on LPS-induced adolescent depressive-like behaviors and the role of Nrf2 regulated neuroinflammatory response in esketamine-produced rapid antidepressant efficacy. Adolescent male C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to three groups: control, LPS, and...
Intravenous (IV) ketamine has been evaluated alongside electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in addressing major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar depression (BD), though the comparative outcomes remain inconclusive. This meta-analysis aimed to provide a systematic assessment of the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of IV ketamine relative to ECT for treating MDD or BD. Randomized controlled...
Abstract Intravenous and intranasal Ketamine have become important options for the rapid relief of symptoms in PTSD, Suicidality and in Treatment Resistant Depression and Anxiety. However, they are costly, require at least an out- patient clinic setting and have relatively short lived benefits. I present a pilot study examining 8 patients treated with oral Ketamine, 5 mg/kg for 12 treatments....
Psilocybin, ketamine, and MDMA are psychoactive compounds that exert behavioral effects with distinguishable but also overlapping features. The growing interest in using these compounds as therapeutics necessitates preclinical assays that can accurately screen psychedelics and related analogs. We posit that a promising approach may be to measure drug action on markers of neural plasticity in...
BMC research notesFebruary 12, 2025Maryam Barzkar, Kaveh Alavi, Kazem Malakouti et al.1 citation
This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a single infusion of ketamine in inducing rapid remission of severe suicidal ideation, compared to Midazolam, in a population with acute suicidal thoughts. In a double-blind randomized controlled trial conducted in Tehran, Iran, from January to July 2022 (IRCT20220118053756N1), 36 inpatients with acute severe suicidal ideation were enrolled....
Deficits in working memory (WM) are a hallmark of neuropsy-chiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, yet their neurobiological basis remains poorly understood. Glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are critical for spatial WM (sWM), with NMDAR antagonist ketamine known to attenuate task-evoked activation and reduce sWM accuracy. Cortical microcircuit models hypothesize that NMDAR...
Methamphetamine use disorder is a significant public health concern. No pharmacological treatment options currently exist for methamphetamine use disorder, and psychotherapy is only moderately effective. Preliminary evidence suggests that ketamine-assisted psychotherapy produces sustained improvements in substance use and mental health symptomatology. In addition to direct antidepressant...
Suicide is a global public health problem with few empirically supported treatments. We conducted a systematic review of clinical trials (CT) since 2020 of racemic ketamine or one of its enantiomers' (R/S) potential to reduce suicidal ideation or behavior (SIB). An initial PubMed search on April 15th, 2024 yielded 2483 results. 104 relevant CTs were identified. An additional search using other...
BMC Pregnancy and ChildbirthFebruary 6, 2025Moaz Yasser Darwish, Abdallah A Helal, Yousif Ahmed Othman et al.8 citations
Postpartum depression (PPD) is categorized by the Disorders-Fifth Edition as depression that begins during pregnancy or within the first month after giving birth. Ketamine and esketamine have shown promising results in the treatment of several depressive disorders, which suggests that they may have a role in the prevention of PPD. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to update evidence...
Transient exposure to ketamine can trigger lasting changes in behavior and mood. We found that brief ketamine exposure causes long-term suppression of futility-induced passivity in larval zebrafish, reversing the "giving-up" response that normally occurs when swimming fails to cause forward movement. Whole-brain imaging revealed that ketamine hyperactivates the norepinephrine-astroglia circuit...
The dissociative effects of ketamine and psychedelics might be associated with their rapid antidepressant properties, raising questions about whether these effects are necessary for their therapeutic action. Additionally, the distinct dissociative experiences often reported by patients in clinical trials may reveal whether they receive an active treatment or a placebo, potentially introducing...
Low-dose ketamine may have an opioid-sparing effect in critically ill patients but may also predispose them to traumatic memories. We evaluated the effects of low-dose ketamine infusion in the intensive care unit (ICU) on fentanyl consumption and traumatic memories after hospital discharge. This randomized, double-blind, controlled trial was conducted at a university-based surgical ICU. 118...
Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist that has shown effectiveness as a rapidly acting treatment for depression. Although advances have been made in understanding ketamine's antidepressant pharmacological and molecular mechanisms of action, the large-scale neurocognitive mechanisms driving its therapeutic effects are less clearly understood. To help provide such a framework,...
Esketamine has been found to reduce the incidence of postpartum depression (PPD) in randomized clinical trials. However, current evidence from randomized clinical trials does not reflect esketamine's efficacy in clinical settings. To assess the clinical efficacy of intraoperative esketamine administration for preventing PPD among women who underwent cesarean delivery. This randomized clinical...
Abstract Background Whereas ketamine has displayed robust antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) (Han et al., 2016), only 30-40% of patients with TRD respond to ketamine therapy (Wilkinson et al., 2018; Sakurai et al., 2020). Several postmortem studies have shown decreased myelination in patients with depression (Hamidi, Drevets and Price, 2004; Altshuler et al., 2010),...
Abstract Background Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) affects almost 30% of patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (1). Esketamine Nasal Spray (ESK-NS) has recently been approved for TRD in combination with a Serotonin Specific Reuptake Inhibitor/SSRI or a Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor/SNRI. There is a lack of studies investigating the effectiveness and safety of ESK-NS...