Asian Journal of Psychiatry
May 16, 2026
Sonia Shenoy, Vijetha Shenoy Belle, Ravindra Neelakanthappa Munoli et al.
1 citation
Background: Oral ketamine is a novel treatment for management of depression. However, evidence related to its effectiveness and safety is unavailable. This systematic review aimed to assess the short-term efficacy and safety of oral ketamine compared to placebo or other modes of ketamine in randomized controlled trials (RCT) in unipolar depression, bipolar depression, and treatment-resistant...
British Journal of General Practice
May 14, 2026
Megan Glover, Paul McNamara
Background Ketamine, once a niche party drug and anaesthetic, has become one of the fastest growing substances of misuse in the UK, with deaths increasing six-fold over the past decade. It is now the fifth most commonly used drug among young people, having surpassed cocaine. Aim To explore the rise in ketamine use among young people, its physical and psychological consequences, and their...
Behavioral Sciences
May 14, 2026
Fabiola Raffone, Carlo Ignazio Cattaneo, Enrico Pessina et al.
Trauma-related autobiographical memories can manifest as involuntary, vivid, emotionally charged intrusions that perpetuate avoidance, negative emotions, and functional impairment. While these memories are central to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they also occur across diagnoses and are often reported in depressive disorders, including treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Although...
Journal of Affective Disorders
May 14, 2026
Joshua Curtiss, Laya Dasari, Julianne Origlio et al.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) affects millions globally, with approximately 30% of patients experiencing treatment-resistant depression (TRD). While ketamine has emerged as a rapid-acting intervention, response rates remain variable, underscoring the need to refine precision medicine approaches for ketamine treatment. Network theories of mental health disorders have been promoted as framework...
Fortschritte der Neurologie · Psychiatrie
May 13, 2026
Cornelius Schüle, Anna Sobieraj, Helena Rogg
1 citation
Abstract: Esketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist and was approved as a nasal spray in March 2019, initially in the USA and then in December 2019 in Europe, as an adjunct to antidepressant pharmacotherapy for the treatment of treatment-resistant major depression or for rapid symptom reduction in psychiatric emergency situations in patients with major depression. In addition, esketamine nasal...
Journal of Pre-Clinical and Clinical Research
May 12, 2026
Bartłomiej Kosiarski, A. Skrzypek, Patrycja Markowicz et al.
Rapid-acting interventions in treatment-resistant depression – a comparative review of
Translational Psychiatry
May 12, 2026
Linda Bryant, Laith Alexander, Sergio Mena et al.
Ketamine has demonstrated rapid antidepressant efficacy in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but clinical decision-making is challenging due to variability in individual response. Current trial-and-error prescribing practices may expose patients to ineffective treatment and avoidable adverse effects, underscoring the need for reliable predictive tools to optimize treatment selection and...
Psychiatry Research
May 12, 2026
Isis Lunsky, Gilmar Gutierrez, Xena Wang et al.
Postpartum Depression (PPD) is a common condition with serious consequences for both mother and baby if left untreated. Currently, few effective strategies exist for prevention of PPD. Ketamine and Esketamine are rapid acting and potent antidepressants, and emerging evidence is showing promising results for PPD. This review searched the MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases,...
Archives of Suicide Research
May 9, 2026
Gregory Carter, Maree Hackett, Stevan Nikolin et al.
Ketamine has disputed effects on suicidal ideation scores in depressed populations. This study assessed effectiveness of ketamine in adults with treatment resistant depression, examining a secondary outcome of suicidal ideation. Phase III, double-blind, randomized, active-controlled, multicenter trial. Participants were randomized to twice-weekly subcutaneous racemic ketamine or midazolam for 4...
Psychological Medicine
May 8, 2026
Lou-Anne Chavigny, Véronique Desbeaumes Jodoin, Nicolas Garel et al.
Intravenous (IV) low-dose ketamine has emerged as a promising treatment for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, its impact on cognitive functioning remains unclear. This systematic review examines the cognitive and executive effects of IV ketamine in TRD, focusing on their relationship to depressive and suicidal outcomes. A systematic search of Cochrane, MEDLINE,...
Journal of Affective Disorders
May 6, 2026
Rutger Boesjes, Claudia Oosterveld, Jeanine Kamphuis et al.
1 citation
Ketamine, including its enantiomers (S)-ketamine (esketamine) and (R)-ketamine (arketamine), has demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD), yet clinical responses vary widely, highlighting the need to identify mechanisms underlying treatment efficacy and related potential predictors. Growing evidence suggests that alterations in sleep...
Neuropharmacology
May 6, 2026
Taisiia Prosvirova, Wiktoria Podolecka, Jacek Wróbel et al.
Ketamine produces rapid antidepressant effects accompanied by marked changes in fast brain rhythms. High-frequency oscillations (HFO; 130-180 Hz) are an increasingly recognized signature of ketamine across species. However, their relationship to classical gamma activity and their circuit-level organization remain unclear. Using simultaneous multiregion recordings in freely moving male Wistar...
Behavioural Pharmacology
May 6, 2026
Bart A. Ellenbroek, Gernot Riedel
The past two decades have seen a remarkable renaissance in research on psychedelic drugs and ketamine. Following decades of regulatory restriction that severely limited, especially clinical research, a growing body of evidence has shown that psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin can have long-lasting beneficial effects for treatment-resistant depression, drug and...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
May 5, 2026
Roberto Malinow
Ketamine has been shown to reduce depression and suicidality in individuals resistant to treatment by other drugs. Exactly how ketamine works is not known. Here, I propose a new hypothesis that involves synaptic and circuit plasticity and may lead to enhanced efficacy in treating depression as well as other conditions.
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
May 4, 2026
Samuel T. Wilkinson, Brandon Kitay, Matthew Macaluso et al.
Background: Suicide is a public health crisis in the US, with limited evidence demonstrating efficacy of treatments for high-risk patients due in part to their exclusion from most clinical trials. This clinical trial evaluates the feasibility and efficacy of adjunctive cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with esketamine in patients with major depression and suicidal ideation (MDSI). Methods:...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 3, 2026
Mostafa El Mansari, Naomichi Okamoto, Pierre Blier
Abstract Background In preclinical studies, an increase in α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor throughput is the predominant hypothesis posited to explain the rapid antidepressant effect of ketamine and S-ketamine. Several lines of evidence show that this AMPA increase takes place in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 3, 2026
Kuan-I Liu, Wei-Chen Lin, Cheng-Ta Li et al.
Intravenous ketamine demonstrates rapid efficacy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, its impact on individual depressive symptoms and whether the degree of treatment resistance moderates these effects remain unclear. This study aimed to dissect symptom-specific trajectories and examine the moderating role of the degree of treatment resistance. We conducted a post-hoc analysis of...
BJPsych Open
May 1, 2026
Gijsbrecht H. J. Roelandt, Jurriaan F M Strous, Jeanine Kamphuis et al.
Summary This case report presents the case of a 25-year-old woman who developed ketamine addiction following a single sub-anaesthetic dose of intranasal ketamine in a pilot study investigating intranasal racemic ketamine for acute suicidality. She had a history of depression, obsessive–compulsive disorder, autism spectrum disorder and anorexia nervosa, and she had sporadically used alcohol and...
Synapse
May 1, 2026
Bridget Xu, Cassandra Carrasco, Yi‐Wen Chen et al.
ABSTRACT Anorexia nervosa is a deadly eating disorder marked by extreme food restriction, compulsive exercise, and severe weight loss. In a prior study using the activity‐based anorexia (ABA) animal model of anorexia nervosa, 30 mg/kg, but not 3 mg/kg, of ketamine reduced relapse vulnerability, measured as increased food intake, increased body weight (BW), and reduced excessive wheel running,...
Brain Research Bulletin
May 1, 2026
Ladina Philomena Gubser, Anna Stefania Trippel, Niklaus Zoelch et al.
Ketamine has been shown to modulate glutamate signaling in animals and may therefore have the potential to restore glutamate imbalances in the brain. Impaired glutamate homeostasis has been implicated in mental health disorders such as substance use disorders (SUDs). Thus, we investigated ketamine's potential to increase glutamate levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key region for the...