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 on treating depression is moving fast. Right now the clearest clinical evidence is for ketamine and its FDA‑approved form esketamine, which can lift symptoms quickly but often only for days or weeks. Classic psychedelics like psilocybin, and related compounds such as DMT and 5‑MeO‑DMT, show strong early promise when given with psychotherapy. However, most psychedelic studies are still small or early‑stage and need larger, well‑controlled trials. Other approaches are being tested too. MDMA‑assisted therapy has strong, growing evidence for post‑traumatic stress disorder and can also reduce some depressive symptoms, but some pooled reports have been retracted and long‑term safety and broad applicability need more study. Brain‑stimulation methods (deep brain stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation) and combined treatments (for example ketamine plus TMS) show mixed or preliminary results. Across all these lines of research, the therapy, setting, and careful medical oversight matter. Studies also often lack diversity and long‑term follow‑up, so we cannot assume the results apply to everyone yet.
Researchers tested a single intravenous dose of ketamine in 73 people with major depression that had not gotten better with usual treatments. In a two-site, double-blind trial, people were randomly given either ketamine or an active placebo (the anesthetic midazolam). Twenty-four hours after the infusion, people who got ketamine were…
This paper is a clear review of how ketamine can lift severe depression quickly for some people and what we know about how it works in the brain. The authors say a single low-dose intravenous shot of ketamine can produce rapid and lasting antidepressant effects in people whose depression did…
This review explains how ketamine can lift depression symptoms much faster than standard antidepressants. Researchers describe the clinical results, how doctors usually give ketamine, and the brain changes it seems to cause. They also say that the treatment must be given carefully because small dose changes matter, the exact 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…
This study used mouse brain cells grown in the lab and live mice to find how low doses of ketamine act quickly to reduce depression-like and anxiety-like behaviors. The researchers found that ketamine lowers activity of a molecule called calcineurin. That change leads to more of a specific kind of…
Serotonin is a brain chemical that helps control many behaviors. This paper reviews research showing that the fats in the outer layer of nerve cells — the cell membrane — can change how the proteins that make, store, release, and detect serotonin work. Those fat–protein interactions are not fixed. They…
