Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 3, 2026
Anita Słupska, Wiesław Jerzy Cubała, Damian Swieczkowski et al.
Objectives Ketamine and esketamine are increasingly used for treatment-resistant depressive disorders, particularly when rapid symptom reduction is clinically desirable. Intranasal esketamine has a product-specific regulatory framework in several jurisdictions, whereas most racemic ketamine formulations remain off-label for psychiatric indications. This narrative review provides practical...
Molecular Psychiatry
September 2, 2026
Yunkai Sun, Yehong Fang, Pu Peng et al.
Marked interindividual heterogeneity in substance use disorder (SUD) impedes the identification of consistent neuroanatomical alterations, limiting the development of robust markers for clinical risk stratification. We applied a normative modeling framework to explore individual neuroanatomical deviations in individuals with SUD across two distinct substance classes, and assessed their...
medRxiv
September 2, 2026
Yingqian Zhang, Xiaoman Zhuang, Mengqi Niu et al.
preprint
Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a severe mental illness associated with severe clinical consequences and substantial societal burden. It’s characterized by immune-inflammatory dysregulation and immune sensitization. Objective: To determine whether in vitro ketamine attenuates phytohemagglutinin (PHA)/lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced immune sensitization in patients with MDD and...
JAMA Psychiatry
September 2, 2026
Diana Orsini, Sara Di Luch, George Tomlinson et al.
Importance Antidepressant efficacy of intravenous (IV) ketamine has been demonstrated in major depressive disorder; however, the efficacy and safety of ketamine for bipolar depression remain largely unknown, with limited data available in this specific population. Objective To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of adjunctive IV ketamine compared with midazolam for...
Indian Journal of Psychiatry
September 1, 2026
Anand Prakash, Pranab Mahapatra, Jigyansa I. Pattnaik et al.
ABSTRACT Background: The 4–12 week lag period of conventional antidepressants creates critical vulnerability in severe depression, with peak suicide risk during the first month. While ketamine research has focused on treatment-resistant populations, its potential to eliminate this lag period in non-treatment-resistant severe depression remains unexplored. Aims: To evaluate whether add-on...
The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
September 1, 2026
Neil McNaughton, Ben Beaglehole, Paul Glue
The dose-response profile of racemic ketamine in internalizing disorders is poorly characterized. This was a secondary analysis of outcome responses in patients with treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized and/or social anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. For each disorder, they received single intramuscular doses of racemic ketamine (0.5 and 1.0...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
A Nunes, J E Cunningham, B Leden et al.
Abstract Background Use of intravenous ketamine or intranasal esketamine for depression is frequently limited due to resource requirements and cost. Alternative treatment models have used oral, sublingual or intranasal racemic ketamine, but optimal doses and frequency of administration remain unclear. Dosing modelled from the standard 0.5-1.0mg/kg twice weekly IV ketamine result in transient...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
Abstract Background Antidepressant effects of ketamine and esketamine are short lived, often lasting only weeks after multiple treatments. With that in mind, it has been considered addition of psychotherapy may enhance outcomes. One approach, knows as Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) focuses on "integration " of the dissociative experience induced by ketamine, and suggests this may produce...
The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update
September 1, 2026
A systematic review and meta‐analysis encompassing 26 ran‐domized controlled trials (RCTs) has concluded that both single and repeated infusions of ketamine significantly improve suicidality and depressive symptoms in patients with a major depressive episode. Most of the serious adverse events that were reported in the included trials were determined to be unrelated to study treatment.
The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update
September 1, 2026
Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who received 4 weeks of buprenorphine treatment following a single infusion of ketamine experienced a significant reduction in suicidal ideation compared with ketamine plus placebo, a randomized, double‐blind trial has found. No serious treatment‐related adverse events were reported. Study results were published online May 19, 2026 in the American...