Journal of affective disorders
March 1, 2025
Xiang Liu, Zhipeng Wei, Lifeng Li et al.
12 citations
People with major depressive disorder show widespread damage to the brain's white matter, particularly in fibers connecting different regions. A two-week treatment with intravenous esketamine (0.25 mg/kg) effectively reduced depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and improved cognitive function in 20 patients compared to 20 healthy controls. However, brain scans revealed that the damaged white matter did not recover during this short treatment period. The degree of damage in certain projection fibers was linked to the severity of anxiety and suicidal ideation. The study lacked a placebo control and many patients also took sertraline, making it difficult to isolate esketamine's specific effects on the brain.
Neuroscience
July 8, 2025
Xiang Liu, Yumeng Liu, Jun Tu et al.
2 citations
In 29 patients with major depressive disorder, six intravenous infusions of esketamine led to significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation scores, along with improved cognitive scores. After two weeks, functional connectivity between the right caudal hippocampus and the left cerebellum, precuneus, and middle temporal gyrus increased. The connectivity between the right caudal hippocampus and left middle temporal gyrus negatively correlated with cognitive scores. The altered hippocampal connectivity may reflect esketamine's regulatory mechanism on depressive symptoms, involving the default network and cortico-cerebellar loop.
Brain research bulletin
November 13, 2025
Xiang Liu, Ziyi Hua, Yongqiang Shu et al.
1 citation
In patients with major depressive disorder, a two-week course of intravenous esketamine combined with sertraline led to improvements in anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and cognitive scores. Brain imaging revealed that before treatment, patients had abnormal spontaneous brain activity compared to healthy individuals, with increased regional homogeneity in several brain regions and decreased homogeneity in others. After treatment, the local consistency of the left middle temporal gyrus reversed toward normal levels. Changes in this region correlated with anxiety scale scores, suggesting it may be a key hub linked to depression severity and recovery.