Spotlight: Rapid-acting NMDA and GABAergic Modulators in Mood Disorders: From Synaptic Mechanisms to Clinical Practice (Serretti, 2025)
"Depression is increasingly conceptualized as a disorder of impaired synaptic plasticity and excitation-inhibition imbalance within corticolimbic circuits. Ketamine, brexanolone, zuranolone, offer complementary approaches to restore circuit function."
Spotlight: Personality profiles and trauma history in ketamine therapy for mood and anxiety disorders: A latent profile analysis of short-term outcomes (Gregoire, et al, 2025)
"Personality traits relate to baseline mental health severity but not short-term response to ketamine. Trauma history may predict greater benefit from treatment."
Spotlight: Changing your mind: neuroplastic mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of psychedelics in depression, PTSD, and addiction (Palhas, et al, 2025)
"Serotonergic psychedelics & ketamine appear to share common cellular mechanisms. They both recruit glutamatergic neurons to stimulate BDNF-trKB signaling, promoting synaptogenesis via the mTOR pathway. These changes may explain their efficacy in depression, anxiety, PTSD, & addiction."
How does ketamine affect psychotherapy?
Studies suggest that human support is a factor in ketamine psychedelic therapy
Spotlight: Modulation of functional network co-activation pattern dynamics following ketamine treatment in major depression (Taraku, et al, 2025)
"findings suggest ketamine modulates brain network dynamics which may normalize dynamic patterns seen in TRD at baseline toward patterns seen in controls. Changes in Salience Network state dynamics may correspond to improvements in ruminative symptoms following ketamine therapy."
Spotlight: Intermittent ketamine and neuromodulation treatment evoke synergistic antidepressant-relevant action (Brown, et al, 2025)
"The rapid response that can be observed following ketamine treatment has reconceptualized how pharmacotherapy can treat depression. One subanesthetic infusion can alleviate symptoms within hours; however, sustained relief also requires multiple doses. "