Blood biomarker changes and relationships after low dose oral ketamine treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
medRxiv Preprint Server March 2, 2025 Bonnie L. Quigley, Emerald Orr, Sophie Kafka et al. preprint
In a 6-week open-label trial of low-dose oral ketamine for PTSD, blood samples from 25 participants showed a small but significant decrease in both BDNF and VEGF-A levels after treatment, with a positive correlation between the two biomarkers. This suggests ketamine's effects may involve a reciprocal interaction between BDNF and VEGF-A, offering potential insight into a biological mechanism for PTSD symptom reduction. Novel relationships between FKBP51, serotonin, and clinical scales were also observed. No significant changes in immune cytokines were detected, possibly because half the participants had low-grade inflammation and half did not.