Behavioural Pharmacology
March 13, 2018
Rachel R. Horsley, Tomáš Páleníček, Jan Kolin et al.
52 citations
Short-term moderate doses of serotonergic and dissociative hallucinogens can be useful in the treatment of anxiety. Recently, a trend has developed for long-term intermittent 'microdosing' (usually one-tenth of a 'full' active dose), with reports of long-lasting relief from anxiety and related disorders; however, there is no scientific evidence for the efficacy of therapeutic microdosing nor to...
Scientific Reports
March 5, 2018
Kai Zhang, Yuko Fujita, Kenji Hashimoto
Since the metabolism of (R,S)-ketamine to (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) is reported to be essential for ketamine's antidepressant effects, there is an increasing debate about antidepressant effects of (2R,6R)-HNK. Using pharmacokinetic and behavioral techniques, we investigated whether intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) infusion of (R)-ketamine or (2R,6R)-HNK show antidepressant effects in a...
Molecular Psychiatry
February 27, 2018
Allison C. Nugent, Elizabeth D. Ballard, T. Gould et al.
254 citations
Ketamine’s mechanism of action was assessed using gamma power from magnetoencephalography (MEG) as a proxy measure for homeostatic balance in 35 unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 25 healthy controls enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized cross-over trial of 0.5 mg/kg ketamine. MDD subjects showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms,...
Biological Psychiatry
February 23, 2018
Alessia Mastrodonato, Randy Martinez, Ina P. Pavlova et al.
BACKGROUND We previously reported that a single injection of ketamine prior to stress protects against the onset of depressive-like behavior and attenuates learned fear. However, the molecular pathways and brain circuits underlying ketamine-induced stress resilience are still largely unknown. METHODS Here, we tested if prophylactic ketamine administration altered neural activity in the...
Harvard Review of Psychiatry
February 20, 2018
Dawn F. Ionescu, J. Felicione, Aishwarya K. Gosai et al.
Abstract Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent conditions in psychiatry. Patients who do not respond to traditional monoaminergic antidepressant treatments have an especially difficult-to-treat type of MDD termed treatment-resistant depression. Subanesthetic doses of ketamine—a glutamatergic modulator—have shown great promise for rapidly treating patients with the most...
Journal of Affective Disorders
February 17, 2018
Mark J. Niciu, Bridget J. Shovestul, Brittany A. Jaso et al.
134 citations
Background Ketamine induces rapid and robust antidepressant effects, and many patients also describe dissociation, which is associated with antidepressant response. This follow-up study investigated whether antidepressant efficacy is uniquely related to dissociative symptom clusters. Methods Treatment-resistant patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar disorder (BD) (n=126) drawn...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
February 10, 2018
Andrew P. Allen, Maura Naughton, J. Dowling et al.
53 citations
Current first-line antidepressants can take weeks or months to decrease depressive symptoms. Low dose ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, shows potential for a more rapid antidepressant effect, with efficacy also evident in previously treatment-resistant populations. However, a greater understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying such effects is required....
Acta Neuropsychiatrica
February 1, 2018
V. S. Pereira, V. A. Hiroaki-Sato
Objective Although monoaminergic-targeted drugs have prompted great advances in the development of treatments for depression, the need for new options persists, since these drugs still have a delayed clinical effect and most patients do not respond properly to them. Recently, the observation of the antidepressant effects of ketamine brought on a new wave of studies regarding the comprehension...
Journal of Affective Disorders
February 2018
Gerrit I Van Schalkwyk, Samuel T. Wilkinson, Larry Davidson et al.
Ketamine has rapid-acting antidepressant effects. Frequently, ketamine administration also causes acute psychoactive effects - in trials, these effects are commonly measured using the Clinician Administered Dissociative State Scale (CADSS). However, the CADSS was not designed for this specific purpose, having been validated in other clinical contexts, and anecdotally does not appear to fully...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
February 2018
Haiying Tang, Daniel Kukral, Yu-Wen Li et al.
Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability globally. Improvements in the efficacy of antidepressant therapy are needed as a high proportion (>40%) of individuals with major depressive disorder fail to respond adequately to current treatments. The non-selective N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor channel blocker, (±)-ketamine, has been reported to produce a rapid and long-lasting...