A word to the wise about ketamine.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

41 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

1. Ketamine/esketamine treatment for resistant depression in children and adolescents: a PRISMA systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026
   Pooled it
2. International pooled patient-level meta-analysis of ketamine infusion for depression: In search of clinical moderators.Molecular psychiatry · 2022
   Pooled it
3. Ketamine as a potential treatment for suicidal ideation: a systematic review of the literature.Drugs in R&D · 2015
   Pooled it
4. The effect of esketamine combined with propofol-induced general anesthesia on cerebral blood flow velocity: a randomized clinical trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2024
   Trial
5. A Novel, Brief, Fully Automated Intervention to Extend the Antidepressant Effect of a Single Ketamine Infusion: A Randomized Clinical Trial.The American journal of psychiatry · 2022
   Trial
6. Attenuation of Antidepressant Effects of Ketamine by Opioid Receptor Antagonism.The American journal of psychiatry · 2018
   Trial
7. Adjunctive Lanicemine (AZD6765) in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder and History of Inadequate Response to Antidepressants: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2017
   Trial
8. Effect of intraoperative application of ketamine on postoperative depressed mood in patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery.Journal of anesthesia · 2016
   Trial
9. A single infusion of ketamine improves depression scores in patients with anxious bipolar depression.Bipolar disorders · 2015
   Trial
10. A community-centered approach to psychedelics.Discover mental health · 2025
    Review
11. Can dextromethorphan-bupropion reduce mental pain in depressed individuals? A generating hypothesis overview perspective.Annals of general psychiatry · 2025
    Review
12. Experiences of Awe Mediate Ketamine's Antidepressant Effects: Findings From a Randomized Controlled Trial in Treatment-Resistant Depression.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024
    Article
13. The why, when, where, how, and so what of so-called rapidly acting antidepressants.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024
    Review
14. Ketamine and the neurobiology of depression: Toward next-generation rapid-acting antidepressant treatments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Review
15. Mu Opioid Receptor Activation Mediates (S)-ketamine Reinforcement in Rats: Implications for Abuse Liability.Biological psychiatry · 2023
    Article
16. A Pilot Study of Ketamine Infusion after Suicide Attempt: New Frontiers in Treating Acute Suicidality in a Real-World Medical Setting.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
    Article
17. Target deconvolution studies of (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine: an elusive search.Molecular psychiatry · 2022
    Article
18. The opioid system in depression.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022
    Review
19. The molecular pathophysiology of depression and the new therapeutics.MedComm · 2022
    Review
20. Unraveling the opioid actions of S-ketamine and R-ketamine: comment on Bonaventura et al.Molecular psychiatry · 2021
    Article

Corrections and comments

• Commented on by
  Electroconvulsive therapy is a standard treatment; ketamine is not (yet).2014
• Comment on
  Antidepressant efficacy of ketamine in treatment-resistant major depression: a two-site randomized controlled trial.2013

Authors and funding

1 author.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

Indexed as