Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
January 1, 2021
Samuel t. Wilkinson, Taeho greg Rhee, Jutta Joormann et al.
102 citations
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may help sustain the antidepressant effects of ketamine in people with treatment-resistant depression. In a trial, 42 patients with treatment-resistant depression received six intravenous ketamine infusions over three weeks. The 28 who responded were then randomized to CBT or treatment as usual for 14 weeks. On one depression scale, the CBT group showed significantly greater sustained improvement, with a moderate-to-large effect size. A smaller subset of ketamine responders also improved in emotional cognitive accuracy, while nonresponders did not. The findings are preliminary and need confirmation in larger trials.
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
July 23, 2018
Samuel T. Wilkinson, Rachel B. Katz, Mesut Toprak et al.
88 citations
In a clinical setting, ketamine infusions for severe, treatment-resistant mood disorders showed lower response and remission rates than those in research protocols. Of 44 patients starting a four-infusion protocol, 45.5% responded and 27.3% remitted by the fourth infusion. A small long-term subsample (n=14) received 12 to 45 total treatments over 14 to 126 weeks with no observed cognitive decline, increased delusions, or cystitis symptoms. The treatment was generally well tolerated, but the small maintenance group limits conclusions about long-term safety.
The lancet. Psychiatry
May 1, 2026
Joseph J Taylor, Balázs Szigeti, Noah D Silverberg et al.
Placebo effects remain a major paradox in medical research, with more data available from placebo-controlled trials than on any treatment, yet little deep analysis of how they are measured, appraised, and interpreted. This review shifts focus from clinical practice to clinical trials, examining established and emerging approaches for managing placebo effects in randomized controlled trials. It highlights three key challenges in contemporary psychiatric research: blinding and expectancy in psychedelic trials, large placebo responses in interventional psychiatry trials (device or procedure-based treatments), and the implications of overlapping neurobiological mechanisms between placebo effects and psychiatric treatments.