Anesthetics as Treatments for Depression: Clinical Insights and Underlying Mechanisms.
Annual review of neuroscience – February 19, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Surprising finding: Common anesthetics may hold the key to treating stubborn depression. While ketamine's antidepressant effects are well-known, other anesthetics like nitrous oxide and propofol also show promise in lifting mood. These drugs appear to reset brain circuits linked to depression, offering rapid relief where traditional treatments fail. The discovery opens new paths for treating resistant depression using existing, well-understood medications.
Abstract
Major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression are significant worldwide health problems that need new therapies. The success of the anesthetic ketamine as an antidepressant is well known. It is less widely known that several other anesthetic agents have also shown antidepressant effects. These include nitrous oxide, propofol, isoflurane, sevoflurane, dexmedetomidine, and xenon. We review clinical and basic science investigations that have studied the therapeutic value of these anesthetics for treating depression. We propose potential neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the antidepressant effects of anesthetics by combining our understanding of how anesthetics modulate brain dynamics to alter arousal states, current theories of depression pathophysiology, and findings from other depression treatment modalities.