Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
Research shows that ketamine and a related drug, esketamine, can lift depressive symptoms quickly for some people, especially those who did not get better with usual antidepressants. Short-term randomized trials and expert reviews report clear, often fast benefits after a single dose or a few doses, and esketamine (a nasal spray) is approved for some hard-to-treat depressions. At the same time, many studies are small or short. The fast benefit often fades after days to a few weeks, so patients commonly receive repeated treatments. Researchers still need better long-term safety data, clearer rules about dosing and maintenance, and more work to understand exactly how ketamine works in the human brain.
Major depressive disorder is a serious illness. Researchers reviewed how ketamine — a drug that blocks a brain receptor called the NMDA receptor — can lift depression symptoms quickly and for a sustained time in people and in animals. They describe possible ways ketamine works: it may boost another type…
Researchers pooled results from 29 human studies that measured blood levels of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, after people received so-called psychoplastogen drugs such as ketamine or psychedelics. They found no clear change in blood BDNF after these drugs. The authors say this does not prove the…
