ketamine
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."
salience network
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."
ketamine
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. "
ketamine
Spotlight: Efficacy and safety of ketamine maintenance therapy in treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review of treatment protocols and clinical outcomes (Al-Garni, et al, 2025)
"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."
ketamine
Spotlight: Oral ketamine for the treatment of major depressive and bipolar disorder, a randomized controlled trial and meta-analysis (Silberbauer, et al, 2025)
Treatment was well-tolerated, with no serious adverse events reported...in a total of 592 patients, meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on oral ketamine treatment demonstrated its antidepressant efficacy with a Number Needed to Treat = 4.89 for response and a NNT = 9.16 for remission.
opiod system
Spotlight: Antidepressants and the endogenous opioid system (Fricker, et al, 2025)
"A growing body of evidence links the opioid system w/ major depressive disorder... two different widely used antidepressants, tianeptine & ketamine, both interact with MOR; tianeptine as a full agonist, ketamine as a positive allosteric modulator. Both produce antidepressant effects within days."
at home ketamine
Spotlight: Ketamine Harm Reduction
Prevention & Treatment in Ketamine Use Disorder - When a medicine becomes a poison
iv ketamine
Spotlight: Efficacy of Intravenous Racemic Ketamine on Global Severity and Individual Symptoms of Depression: An Exploratory Retrospective Analysis (Landrum, et al, 2025)
" Maintenance intravenous racemic ketamine therapy demonstrated significant, persistent, and broad efficacy for treatment-resistant depression ...Side effect burden was no greater in higher doses as compared with lower. "
iv ketamine
Spotlight: First study to compare two ketamine therapies for patients with severe depression
IV ketamine found to offer faster response with greater improvements than FDA-approved intranasal esketamine (Spravato)
ketamine
Spotlight: Comparative Effects of Repeated Ketamine Infusion Versus Intranasal Esketamine in Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Retrospective Chart Review (Meisner, et al, 2025)
"In this naturalistic sample of patients with similarly severe TRD treated in a ketamine subspecialty service over a 4–5-week induction period, treatment with IV racemic ketamine was associated with a more rapid response and greater overall efficacy than treatment with IN esketamine."
