ReviewBehavioural brain research2020
Overlap in the neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms underlying ketamine abuse and its use as an antidepressant.
Review in Behavioural brain research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 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
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychedelics and ketamine/esketamine in depressive disorders: biological mechanisms and associated neuroimaging and clinical changes.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy of single and repeated administration of ketamine in unipolar and bipolar depression: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2020Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of zuranolone co-initiated with an antidepressant in adults with major depressive disorder: results from the phase 3 CORAL study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Baseline Plasma BDNF Levelsare Associated with Antianhedonic Effects of Repeated-Dose Intravenous Ketamine in Major Depressive Disorder.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Trial
- Efficacy and safety of psilocybin-assisted treatment for major depressive disorder: Prospective 12-month follow-up.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Trial
- Ketamine and Evolving Neuroplasticity.Clinical drug investigation · 2026Review
- Hippocampal subfield differences in people with and without recreational ketamine use: Insights from multi-modal neuroimaging.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Towards an expanded neurocognitive account of ketamine's rapid antidepressant effects.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Review
- Molecular Mechanisms of Reelin in the Enteric Nervous System and the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis: Implications for Depression and Antidepressant Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Behavioral sensitization and tolerance induced by repeated treatment with ketamine enantiomers in male Wistar rats.PloS one · 2024Article
- Facts and myths about use of esketamine for treatment-resistant depression: a narrative clinical review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Age, Dose, and Locomotion: Decoding Vulnerability to Ketamine in C57BL/6J and BALB/c Mice.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Changes in white matter microstructure following serial ketamine infusions in treatment resistant depression.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Ketamine and serotonergic psychedelics: An update on the mechanisms and biosignatures underlying rapid-acting antidepressant treatment.Neuropharmacology · 2023Review
- Role of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway in the antidepressant effects of ketamine.Neuropharmacology · 2023Review
- A comparison of reinforcing effectiveness and drug-seeking reinstatement of 2-fluorodeschloroketamine and ketamine in self-administered rats.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Article
- Promises and Pitfalls of NMDA Receptor Antagonists in Treating Violent Aggression.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Therapeutic Potentials of Ketamine and Esketamine in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Substance Use Disorders (SUD) and Eating Disorders (ED): A Review of the Current Literature.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Use and abuse of dissociative and psychedelic drugs in adolescence.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2021Review
- Antianhedonic Effect of Repeated Ketamine Infusions in Patients With Treatment Resistant Depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic and psychedelic compound, has revolutionized the field of psychopharmacology by showing robust, and rapid-acting antidepressant activity in patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD), suicidal tendencies, and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Ketamine's efficacy, however, is transient, and patients must return to the clinic for repeated treatment as they experience relapse. This is cause for concern because ketamine is known for its abuse liability, and repeated exposure to drugs of abuse often leads to drug abuse/dependence. Though the mechanism(s) underlying its antidepressant activity is an area of current intense research, both clinical and preclinical evidence shows that ketamine's effects are mediated, at least in part, by molecular adaptations resulting in long-lasting synaptic changes in mesolimbic brain regions known to regulate natural and drug reward. This review outlines our limited knowledge of ketamine's neurobiological and biochemical underpinnings mediating its antidepressant effects and correlates them to its abuse potential. Depression and addiction share overlapping neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms, and though speculative, repeated use of ketamine for the treatment of depression could lead to the development of substance use disorder/addiction, and thus should be tempered with caution. There is much that remains to be known about the long-term effects of ketamine, and our lack of understanding of neurobiological mechanisms underlying its antidepressant effects is a clear limiting factor that needs to be addressed systematically before using repeated ketamine in the treatment of depressed patients.
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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.