Ketamine and serotonergic psychedelics: An update on the mechanisms and biosignatures underlying rapid-acting antidepressant treatment
Neuropharmacology January 13, 2023 Jenessa N. Johnston, Bashkim Kadriu, Josh Allen et al. 64 citations
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Jessica R. Gilbert
National Institute of Mental Health
3 papers in the library · 64 citations · publishing 2021-2023
Papers
Ketamine and attentional bias to threat: dynamic causal modeling of magnetoencephalographic connectivity in treatment-resistant depression
medRxiv Preprint Server February 22, 2021 Jessica R. Gilbert, Christina S. Galiano, Allison C. Nugent et al. preprint
A single intravenous infusion of ketamine rapidly reduces depressive symptoms in people with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. In a double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study with 19 depressed individuals and 15 healthy volunteers, magnetoencephalographic recordings were taken before and six to nine hours after drug or placebo infusion while participants performed an emotional face attention task. Dynamic causal modeling revealed that ketamine accelerated GABA and NMDA transmission in the early visual cortex, sped NMDA transmission in the fusiform cortex, and slowed NMDA transmission in the amygdala.
Fine-tuning neural excitation/inhibition for tailored ketamine use in treatment-resistant depression
arXiv Preprint Archive February 4, 2021 Erik D. Fagerholm, Robert Leech, Steven Williams et al.
Ketamine rapidly reduces depressive symptoms in treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. Using brain imaging and dynamic causal modeling, researchers analyzed neural excitation/inhibition interactions in the primary somatosensory cortex of 18 unmedicated patients and 18 healthy controls during a somatosensory task. Patients were scanned at baseline, 6-9 hours after ketamine infusion, and 6-9 hours after placebo. A shift in neural dynamics toward a stable region of the Poincaré diagram—requiring increased excitatory and inhibitory coupling—predicted symptom improvement specifically after ketamine, not placebo. This drug-specific neural shift may serve as a biomarker for treatment response.