Can we change depressive beliefs? Modulation of belief updating by ketamine in treatment resistant depression
Hugo Bottemanne, Orphée Morlaàs, Anne Claret et al. 4 citations preprint
Ketamine infusion makes people with treatment-resistant depression more optimistic about the future by changing how they learn from good and bad news. After a single infusion, patients updated their beliefs more after favorable information and less after unfavorable information, compared to healthy controls. This shift toward optimism was driven by learning more from positive surprises than negative ones. This change in belief-updating predicted early clinical improvement at one week, seen in 19% of patients. The findings suggest ketamine's antidepressant effects involve altering cognitive biases, which could enhance psychotherapy for depression.