ReviewClinical pharmacology and therapeutics2025
Ketamine and Esketamine in Clinical Trials: FDA-Approved and Emerging Indications, Trial Trends With Putative Mechanistic Explanations.
Review in Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Is the antidepressant efficacy of ketamine and esketamine mediated via opioid mechanisms?European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Pooled it
- A comprehensive review and meta-analysis on the safety and efficacy of esketamine for emerging delirium in elderly patients.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of Subanesthetic Doses of Esketamine on Early Postoperative Pain Sensitivity in Patients Undergoing Salpingectomy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Trial
- Effect of a Subanesthetic Dose of Esketamine on Postoperative Sleep Disturbance After Oocyte Retrieval Under Intravenous Anesthesia: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Trial
- Esketamine Use and Attempted Suicide or Intentional Self-Harm Among Individuals with Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Drug safety · 2026Article
- Psychoactive and Neurobiological Effects of Ketamine in Humans: A Scoping Review of Clinical Evidence.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- A scoping review: ketamine or esketamine when used to assist psychotherapy or in combination with psychotherapy for the management of depression in adults.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- The Role of the NMDA Receptor in the Treatment of Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Self-treatment of psychiatric conditions using ketamine: Patterns, characteristics, and retrospective insights.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Circuit-informed modulation of traumatic memory in PTSD: integrating extinction, suppression, and reconsolidation.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Ketamine Dosing Across Clinical Indications: A Narrative Review Organized by Proposed NMDA-Related Mechanisms.Journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
- Ibogaine induces juvenile-like plasticity and modulates functional and structural regulators of plasticity in the adult mouse visual cortex.BMC neuroscience · 2026Article
- Ketamine reduces microglial activation and brain monocyte infiltration and promotes peripheral regulatory immune cells, relieving lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced depressive-like behavior in mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- The HPA axis and kynurenine pathway: exploring the role of stress and neuroinflammation in treatment-resistant depression.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2026Review
- Comparison of older and newer sedation agents in bronchoscopy.World journal of methodology · 2026Review
- Esketamine/Ketamine: Dual-Action Mechanisms and Clinical Prospects beyond Anesthesia in Psychiatry, Immunology, and Oncology.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Transforming treatment-resistant depression (TRD) care in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: a narrative review of emerging therapies, advancements, and implementation barriers.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Review
- Neuroinflammation and treatment resistance in major depressive disorder.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Managing Chronic Pain: The Ketamine Option.CNS drugs · 2026Review
- Progress in the Application of Esketamine During the Perioperative Period.Drug design, development and therapy · 2026Review
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ketamine has a long and very eventful pharmacological history. Its enantiomer, esketamine ((S)-ketamine), was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and EMA for patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in 2019. The number of approved indications for ketamine and esketamine continues to increase, as well as the number of clinical trials. This analysis provides a quantitative overview of the use of ketamine and its enantiomers in clinical trials during 2014-2024. A total of 363 trials were manually assessed from clinicaltrial.gov with the search term "Ketamine." The highest number of trials were found for the FDA-approved indications: anesthesia (~22%) and pain management (~28%) for ketamine and TRD for esketamine (~29%). Clinical trials on TRD for both ketamine and esketamine also comprised a large proportion of these trials, and interestingly, have reached phase III and phase IV status. Combinatorial treatment of psychiatric disorders and non-psychiatric conditions with pharmacological and non-pharmacological combinations (electroconvulsive therapy, psychotherapeutic techniques, virtual reality, and transcranial magnetic stimulation) is prevalent. Sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine may represent novel therapeutic avenues in neuropsychiatric conditions, that is, major depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, where glutamate excitotoxicity and oxidative stress are likely to be involved. The study suggests that the number of ketamine studies will continue to grow and possible ketamine variants can be approved for treatment of additional indications.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.