Oral ketamine effects on dynamics of functional network connectivity in patients treated for chronic suicidality.
European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience May 21, 2024 Zack Y Shan, Adem T Can, Abdalla Z Mohamed et al. 3 citations
Ketamine treatment for chronic suicidality alters how brain networks synchronize and transition over time. In a 6-week open-label trial with 29 patients, those who received ketamine showed significantly more transitions among whole-brain connectivity states after treatment. At a 10-week follow-up, patients spent more time in and more frequently visited a highly synchronized brain state, and these changes correlated with reduced suicidal ideation scores. Patients who persistently responded to ketamine had a higher baseline fraction of a cognitive control network state with strong connections, suggesting that pre-treatment brain connectivity patterns may help predict who will benefit from ketamine therapy. These findings point to a biological mechanism for ketamine's suicide-prevention effects.