Trial reportBrain and behavior2020
Transient effects of multi-infusion ketamine augmentation on treatment-resistant depressive symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression - An open-label three-week pilot study.
Trial report in Brain and behavior, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Psychedelics and ketamine/esketamine in depressive disorders: biological mechanisms and associated neuroimaging and clinical changes.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Brain-based correlates of antidepressant response to ketamine: a comprehensive systematic review of neuroimaging studies.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Thalamocortical functional connectivity and rapid antidepressant and antisuicidal effects of low-dose ketamine infusion among patients with treatment-resistant depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Transient effects of multi-infusion ketamine augmentation on treatment-resistant depressive symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression - An open-label three-week pilot study.Brain and behavior · 2020Trial
- Ketamine Improves Anhedonic Phenotypes Across Species: Translational Evidence From the Probabilistic Reward Task.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- The cognitive neuroscience of ketamine in major depression.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Review
- Defining Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Depression: Recommendations From the ISBD Task Force.Bipolar disorders · 2025Review
- New Agents in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: What Innovations and in What Areas of Psychopathology?Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Role of Electroconvulsive Therapy, Ketamine Infusion, and Deep Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Depression: A Case Report.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Hype or hope? Ketamine for the treatment of depression: results from the application of deep learning to Twitter posts from 2010 to 2023.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- An Update on the Efficacy of Single and Serial Intravenous Ketamine Infusions and Esketamine for Bipolar Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Esketamine Inhibits Cocaine-Seeking Behaviour Subsequent to Various Abstinence Conditions in Rats.Biomolecules · 2023Article
- The Role of Ketamine in the Treatment of Bipolar Depression: A Scoping Review.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Neuroimaging-Derived Biomarkers of the Antidepressant Effects of Ketamine.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2023Review
- Pharmacological Treatment of Bipolar Depression: A Review of Observational Studies.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Intravenous Ketamine Infusions in Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Depression: An Open-Label Naturalistic Observational Study.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2021Article
- Biomarkers of ketamine's antidepressant effect: a clinical review of genetics, functional connectivity, and neurophysiology.Chronic stress (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)Review
- Treatment-resistant bipolar depression: concepts and challenges for novel interventions.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999)Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionWhile the psychiatric benefits of ketamine have been verified through clinical trials, there is limited information about ketamine augmentation in patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression (TRBPD). Hence, in the present study, we investigate the therapeutic efficacy and functional brain alterations associated with multi-infusion ketamine augmentation in patients with TRBPD.
methodsThe present three-week study included 38 patients with TRBPD, all of whom received a series of nine ketamine injections over the study period. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) was used to assess the effects of multi-infusion ketamine combined with mood stabilizers. Brain function was evaluated by global functional connectivity density (gFCD).
resultsAdjunctive treatment with multiple infusions of ketamine, when combined with a mood stabilizer, could effectively alleviate depressive symptoms for one week, yet the symptoms began to relapse during the second week. Functional brain alterations were detected via gFCD. Specifically, gFCD reductions were mainly found in the bilateral insula, right caudate nucleus, and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, while increased gFCD was mainly located in the bilateral postcentral gyrus, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral thalamus, and cerebellum. Although gFCD alterations were sustained for up to three weeks after the first ketamine infusion, the antidepressant effects of ketamine augmentation sharply declined from the end of the second week of treatment.
conclusionsMulti-infusion ketamine augmentation can rapidly alleviate depressive symptoms in patients with TRBPD. The clinical effects were primarily visible in the first week after treatment and partially sustained for two weeks; however, the therapeutic effects and related functional brain alterations sharply decreased from the end of the second week. Based on these findings, we demonstrated that the clinical efficacy and functional brain alterations induced by ketamine augmentation are transient.
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