SynthesisFrontiers in psychiatry2024
Hype or hope? High placebo response in major depression treatment with ketamine and esketamine: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Treatment-resistant Depression in the Post-ketamine Era: Unmet Needs beyond Rapid Response.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Rapid-acting NMDA and GABAergic Modulators in Mood Disorders: From Synaptic Mechanisms to Clinical Practice.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Review
- [Placebo effect in the treatment with antidepressants : Implications for the scientific evaluation and clinical use of pharmaceutical treatments of depression].Der Nervenarzt · 2025Review
- Electroconvulsive therapy reduces suicidality and all-cause mortality in refractory depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis of neurostimulation studies.Neuroscience applied · 2025Review
- Nitrous Oxide Alters Functional Connectivity in Medial Limbic Structures in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Working with patients' treatment expectations - what we can learn from homeopathy.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Ketamine and esketamine offer a novel approach in the pharmacological treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the placebo response in double-blind, randomized controlled studies (RCTs) on patients with MDD receiving ketamine or esketamine. Methods: For this systematic review and meta-analysis Medline (PubMed), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PsycInfo and Embase databases were systematically searched for citations published up to March 17, 2023. A total number of 5017 abstracts was identified. Quality of the included trials was assessed with the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. The meta-analysis was performed using a restricted maximum likelihood model. This study is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42022377591. Results: A total number of 14 studies and 1100 participants (593 in the medication group and 507 in the placebo group) meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. We estimated the pooled effect sizes of the overall placebo ( Conclusion: Ketamine and esketamine show large antidepressant effects. However, our findings suggest that the placebo response plays a significant role in the antidepressant response and should be used for the benefit of the patients in clinical practice. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42022377591.
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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.