Neuron
March 1, 2019
J. Krystal, C. Abdallah, G. Sanacora et al.
443 citations
Ketamine represents a new class of rapid-acting antidepressants effective for treatment-resistant mood disorders. Its development grew from a revised understanding of depression's biology. Research into how ketamine works is providing fresh insights into antidepressant mechanisms and challenging established views on the neurobiology of depression. The drug's fast, strong, and lasting effects on depressive symptoms appear ready to change how depression is treated.
American Journal of Psychiatry
January 5, 2021
A. Feder, Sara Costi, S. Rutter et al.
239 citations
Repeated intravenous infusions of ketamine, given over two weeks, significantly reduced symptom severity in chronic PTSD compared to a psychoactive placebo (midazolam). At two weeks, the ketamine group scored nearly 12 points lower on the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, and 67% of participants responded to treatment versus 20% in the placebo group. Among responders, the median time to loss of response was 27.5 days after the infusion course. Ketamine was well tolerated with no serious adverse events. This is the first randomized controlled trial to show efficacy of repeated ketamine infusions for chronic PTSD.
Translational Psychiatry
January 10, 2022
F. Cathomas, L. Bevilacqua, Aarthi Ramakrishnan et al.
44 citations
Ketamine rapidly and lastingly reduces depression in people with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but how it works remains unclear. TRD is linked to inflammation, and ketamine may curb inflammatory processes. Whole blood gene expression was compared between 21 healthy controls and 26 TRD patients, and again in TRD patients 24 hours after a single ketamine infusion. Before treatment, TRD patients showed activation of interferon signaling pathways. Among TRD patients, those who later responded to ketamine had higher levels of two glutamate receptor genes (GRM2 and GRIN2D) before the infusion. Ketamine response produced a distinct gene expression signature, but no evidence of anti-inflammatory changes was found. More research is needed on the peripheral immune system's role.