ReviewDrug design, development and therapy2019
Ketamine and depression: a narrative review.
Review in Drug design, development and therapy, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
91 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of racemic ketamine and esketamine for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Expert opinion on drug safety · 2022Pooled it
- Ketamine's effect on inflammation and kynurenine pathway in depression: A systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2021Pooled it
- Ketamine for Bipolar Depression: A Systematic Review.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Classic serotonergic psychedelics for mood and depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis of mood disorder patients and healthy participants.Psychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- BDNF Genetic Variant and Its Genotypic Fluctuation in Major Depressive Disorder.Behavioural neurology · 2021Pooled it
- Circadian Influences on the Habenula and Their Potential Contribution to Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Bolus versus Continuous Infusion of Esketamine for Prevention of Postpartum Depression After Caesarean Delivery: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Trial
- Optimum dose of spinal ropivacaine with or without single intravenous bolus of S-ketamine during elective cesarean delivery: a randomized, double-blind, sequential dose-finding study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2021Trial
- Effect of ketamine intervention on hemodynamic responses in patients with treatment-resistant depression.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Single low-dose esketamine improves postpartum depression symptoms and recovery quality in cesarean section women.American journal of translational research · 2026Article
- Therapeutic Promise and Biotechnological Prospects ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- A Preliminary Approach to Oral Low-Dose Ketamine Self-Administration in Mice (Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Article
- The Effects of Psychotherapy on Single and Repeated Ketamine Infusion(s) Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression: The Convergence of Molecular and Psychological Treatment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Mechanistic intersections between migraine and major depressive disorder.The journal of headache and pain · 2025Review
- The Administration of Ketamine Is Associated with Dose-Dependent Stabilization of Cortical Dynamics in Humans.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Artificial intelligence-based drug repurposing with electronic health record clinical corroboration: A case for ketamine as a potential treatment for amphetamine-type stimulant use disorder.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Ketamine and Esketamine in Clinical Trials: FDA-Approved and Emerging Indications, Trial Trends With Putative Mechanistic Explanations.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2025Review
- Multiple pathways through which the gut microbiota regulates neuronal mitochondria constitute another possible direction for depression.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- The collective lie in ketamine therapy: a call to realign clinical practice with neurobiology.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Review
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Depression is the third leading cause of disability in the world. Depressive symptoms may be reduced within several weeks after the start of conventional antidepressants, but treatment resistance concerns one-third of patients who fail to achieve recovery. Over the last 20 years, ketamine, an antagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, has been described to have antidepressant properties. A literature review was conducted through an exhaustive electronic search. It was restricted to Cochrane reviews, meta-analyses, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ketamine for major depressive disorder and/or bipolar disorder. This review included two Cochrane reviews, 14 meta-analyses and 15 trials. Ketamine was studied versus placebo, versus other comparators and as an anesthetic adjuvant before electroconvulsive therapy. In 14 publications, ketamine provided a rapid antidepressant effect with a maximum efficacy reached at 24 hrs. Its effect lasted for 1-2 weeks after infusion, but a longer-term effect is little reported. Ketamine does not seem to improve depressive symptoms at the end of electroconvulsive sessions. Safety and tolerability profiles with ketamine at low single dose are generally good in depressed patients. However, there is a lack of data concerning ketamine with repeated administration at higher doses. The clinical use of ketamine is increasing. Intranasal (S)-ketamine has recently been approved for depression by the Food and Drug Administration. It could be a promising treatment in depressed patients with suicidal ideation. Collectively, the level of proof of efficacy remains low and more RCTs are needed to explore efficacy and safety issues of ketamine in depression.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.