SynthesisBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2022
Ketamine treatment for refractory anxiety: A systematic review.
Synthesis in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 3 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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ketamine for mood disorders, anxiety, and suicidality in children and adolescents: a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- A transdiagnostic systematic review and meta-analysis of ketamine's anxiolytic effects.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Ketamine treatment for refractory anxiety: A systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Esketamine for Postoperative Anxiety After Major Abdominal Tumor Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Trial
- Esketamine-based PCIA combined with intercostal nerve block for acute pain after lobectomy: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Trial
- The Effectiveness of Herbal Mixture of Echium amoenum L. and Rheum ribes on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Triple-Blind Clinical Trial.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2025Trial
- Antidepressant efficacy of ketamine plus naltrexone for major depression comorbid with alcohol use disorder: a randomized controlled trial.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Subanesthetic Ketamine Suppresses Locus Coeruleus-Mediated Alertness Effects: A 7T fMRI Study.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Article
- Perioperative Anxiety in Adults: A Narrative Review of Pathophysiology, Assessment, and Multimodal Management Strategies.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Intranasal dantrolene nanoparticles inhibit lipopolysaccharide-induced depression and anxiety behavior in mice.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Review
- Difficult-to-Treat Anxiety: A Neurocomputational Framework.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Review
- Methylation levels in the GRIN2B promoter region are associated with bipolar disorder and its anxiety and insomnia symptoms.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2025Article
- Digital Image Speckle Correlation (DISC): Facial Muscle Tracking for Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Ketamine and Esketamine in Clinical Trials: FDA-Approved and Emerging Indications, Trial Trends With Putative Mechanistic Explanations.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2025Review
- The evidence for ketamine treatment in older adults with psychiatric illness: a scoping review.Therapeutic advances in chronic disease · 2025Article
- Effects of Ketamine vs. Midazolam in Adolescent Treatment Resistant Depression.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Ketamine-assisted buprenorphine initiation: a pilot case series.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
- Effects of association between resveratrol and ketamine on behavioral and biochemical analysis in mice.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the psychiatric properties of the dissociative anaesthetic ketamine, as single doses have been shown to have fast-acting mood-enhancing and anxiolytic effects, which persist for up to a week after the main psychoactive symptoms have diminished. Therefore, ketamine poses potential beneficial effects in patients with refractory anxiety disorders, where other conventional anxiolytics have been ineffective. Ketamine is a noncompetitive antagonist of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor, which underlies its induction of pain relief and anaesthesia. However, the role of NMDA receptors in anxiety reduction is still relatively unknown. To fill this paucity in the literature, this systematic review assesses the evidence that ketamine significantly reduces refractory anxiety and discusses to what extent this may be mediated by NMDA receptor antagonism and other receptors. We highlight the temporary nature of the anxiolytic effects and discuss the high discrepancy among the study designs regarding many fundamental factors such as administration routes, complementary treatments and other treatments.
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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.