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In a randomized trial, 98 adults with treatment-resistant depression had brain scans before and 24 hours after a single intravenous infusion of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) or saline. The researchers measured mean diffusivity (DTI-MD), an MRI-based, indirect marker of microstructural brain change that tends to fall when new synapses or tissue…
Researchers reviewed about 300 studies and closely read 29 that tested how ketamine changes the brain at the molecular level in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They looked at short-term changes that happen while the drug is active and longer-term changes that can last after the drug is gone. Short-term changes…
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…
