Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with maladaptive memory reconsolidation and overgeneralized fear responses. EMDR therapy promotes trauma reprocessing by activating the brain's intrinsic memory reconsolidation mechanism, facilitating memory updating, and abandoning outdated emotional schemas. Ketamine may also facilitate adaptive updating of traumatic memory due to...
PharmaceuticalsNovember 3, 2025Jay Toulany, Jasmyn E. A. Cunningham, Abraham Nunes
Background/Objectives: Lithium remains the first choice for long-term prophylaxis of mood episodes in bipolar disorder (BD), but only 30% of patients will respond, and there is no reliable method by which to predict treatment response. Ketamine is a rapid antidepressant therapy which ostensibly yields greater results in patients with clinical phenotypes that are classically associated with...
The Apollo wearable device (wrist or ankle) is an investigational device which provides touch therapy with silent vibrations that may help individuals reduce the symptoms of stress such as difficulty breathing, sleeping or focusing on tasks. Positive feedback from a mental health treatment program that uses ketamine-assisted therapy as a treatment adjunct inspired researchers to assess the...
Twice‐weekly dosing of intranasal esketamine resulted in significant improvement in depressive symptoms compared with placebo in adults with treatment‐resistant depression, a 4‐week trial has found. Esketamine doses of 56 and 84 mg both outperformed placebo in the post‐marketing trial. Study results were published online July 2, 2025, in JAMA Psychiatry.
Abstract Background Behavioural studies in animal models represent a critical component of psychiatric drug development. Positive results in animal studies have identified novel therapeutic targets for major depressive disorder (MDD) but efficacy in humans has largely not been borne out in clinical trials. A possible reason for this failed translation is inappropriate dose selection and the...
• Ketamine and psilocybin show promise in athlete recovery and pain management. • Psychedelics may enhance resilience, mood, and cognitive flexibility in sports. • Growing athlete use raises concerns for safety and anti-doping regulation. • Evidence on long-term effects with exercise remains scarce, urging research.
SynapseNovember 1, 2025Oliver H Miller, Nils Grabole, Isabelle Wells et al.
Low-dose ketamine is an efficacious antidepressant for treatment-resistant unipolar and bipolar depressed patients. Major depressive disorder patients receiving a single infusion report elevated mood within 2 h, and ketamine's antidepressant effects have been observed as long as 7 days posttreatment. In light of this remarkable observation, efforts have been undertaken to "reverse-translate"...
Translational PsychiatryOctober 31, 2025Kristin L Dawson, Athena May Jean M. Carangan, Jessica Klunder et al.2 citations
Major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are debilitating psychiatric conditions associated with poor health outcomes similarly observed in non-pathological aging. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with demonstrated rapid reduction in symptoms associated with Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) and PTSD. Ketamine's effects on...
Background. The water soluble form of quercetin, corvitin, may potentially be useful for preventing complications of short-term ketamine analgesia in children and adults, as well as preventing myocardial damage in the treatment of depression and post- traumatic stress disorder. Purpose – was to determine the effect of quercetin on the myocardium of rats under conditions of ketamine-induced...
Background: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) affects up to a third of patients with major depressive disorder and remains difficult to manage with conventional therapies. Rapid-acting antidepressants targeting the glutamatergic system, such as ketamine, esketamine, and dextromethorphan-bupropion, have emerged as promising alternatives. Nitrous oxide, also an NMDA receptor antagonist, has...
BACKGROUND: Over the past ten years, several psychedelic compounds, including tryptamines like lysergic acid diethylamide/LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and dimethyltryptamine/DMT, have been tested in clinical trials for a range of psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and depression. While these compounds are relatively available for treatment, ketamine and its S(+) enantiomer, esketamine, are...
INTRODUCTION: Functional impairment is commonly reported amongst individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) or treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Extant evidence suggests that ketamine and esketamine, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists and glutamatergic modulators, have shown efficacy in treating MDD/TRD. While symptom reduction remains central to treatment, many...
Background: Comorbid depressive symptoms are prevalent in patients with breast cancer, which adversely impacts postoperative recovery outcomes. Esketamine has emerged as a promising intervention for perioperative depression due to its rapid and sustained effects. This study aims to investigate the impact of the continuous intravenous infusion of esketamine during the perioperative period on...
Background Ketamine and esketamine have demonstrated rapid, short-term antidepressant effects in major depressive disorder (MDD), but their relative safety remains unclear. This review aims to update the evidence on the safety of two agents for MDD and indirectly compare their safety and tolerability. Method We systematically searched PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, and Cochrane databases up to 1 May...
There has been a renewed interest in the use of various psychedelic agents as potential therapies for multiple psychiatric conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), to name a few. This follows the recent accumulation of evidence for ketamine pharmacotherapy and a rapid proliferation of clinics/programs...
Ketamine, a noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, is associated with chronic abuse leading to schizophrenia-like cognitive deficits. The gut-brain axis may play a role in mediating substance-induced neurotoxicity; however, its involvement in ketamine-induced cognitive impairment remains poorly understood. Here, chronic ketamine exposure was administered intraperitoneally to...
Background: Depression is a common complication of Parkinson disease (PD). This study investigated whether a single dose of esketamine could alleviate depressive symptoms in an MPTP mouse model by activating G protein-coupled receptor 109 A (GPR109A) and reducing neuroinflammation. Methods: Adult male C57BL/6 J mice (8 weeks, 25–30 g) were allocated into three groups: saline,...
PsychopharmacologyOctober 27, 2025Nina Gregoire, Ethan Klukas, Kimberley Kaseweter et al.
Ketamine-assisted therapy is emerging as a fast-acting intervention for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. However, individual response to treatment varies, and little is known about how personality traits and trauma history influence outcomes. This study investigated whether distinct personality profiles emerge in a real-world sample of patients undergoing ketamine therapy and...
It is 60 years since ketamine was first tested in humans as an alternative but safer anaesthetic to PCP (phencyclidine) (Corssen and Domino 1966). It became widely used as the “buddy drug” for combatants in the Vietnam War: because of its great safety margin, it could be injected into wounded personnel by their buddies to relieve pain before the arrival of the medical team. Because of...
Background/Objectives: Patients in palliative care often experience multifaceted forms of suffering that extend beyond physical symptoms, including existential distress, loss of meaning, and emotional pain. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) has emerged as a promising intervention for alleviating such complex forms of suffering, yet models specifically tailored to palliative populations...