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5 papers
Research on ketamine for anxiety is early but shows some promising signs. A small number of clinical trials report that ketamine can reduce anxiety symptoms for some people, sometimes for weeks after treatment. However, the studies are few, varied in how they were done, and often small, so we do not yet have strong, clear proof. Scientists have ideas about how ketamine may work. It acts on the brain’s glutamate system and seems to change how brain circuits connect and adapt. But measurements like blood BDNF (a protein linked to brain change) do not show a clear pattern after these drugs, so the biological story is still incomplete. Safety and the role of therapy around the drug are important topics that need more study.
Treatment-resistant depression means depression that does not get better after usual treatments. Scientists do not all agree on one clear definition, which makes it hard to know exactly how common it is or which treatments work best. Using the definition that regulators often use, about 30% of people with depression…
This paper is a careful review of research about treatment-resistant depression. The authors looked through medical studies to see how doctors define this kind of depression, what makes it hard to assess, and which treatments have been tried. They describe drug strategies like adding lithium or thyroid hormone, switching antidepressant…
Researchers ran a clinical trial that directly compared ketamine treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in people whose major depression had not improved with other treatments and who did not have psychosis. The trial found that ketamine was “noninferior” to ECT, which means ketamine worked at least as well as ECT…
Researchers around the world have started clinical studies again to see if psychedelic drugs can help treat serious mental health problems. This work picks up after research that stopped around the 1950s. Scientists are running controlled studies to test whether these substances can safely reduce problems like depression, anxiety, addiction…
This paper reported a small, randomized trial of 64 people with treatment-resistant major depression who were given a single intravenous dose of ketamine or a saline placebo. The authors said depression and suicidal thoughts dropped quickly — within an hour — and that benefits lasted up to two months, but…
