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)

"...mystical experiences were strongly related to immediate and sustained psychiatric benefits at the group level and on an individual, session-by-session basis across the six doses, providing mechanistic support for ketamine-psychotherapy pairings."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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. "

"Concurrent psychotherapy improved treatment maintenance. Adverse events were generally mild to moderate... Ketamine maintenance therapy shows promise as a treatment option for TRD, with regular dosing schedules and early intervention associated with optimal outcomes."