Current Concepts In Anesthesia, Pain Management, And Critical Care Using Ketamine

Abstract

When treating unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD), medications that target monoaminergic systems do not act immediately and have significant limits in terms of their efficacy. Antidepressants having major pharmacological targets other than the monoamine system may have the potential to have a more rapid onset of action and provide improved clinical benefit. There has been some research done looking at the glutamate system as a possible target for the creation of antidepressants. This article will review the most recent findings from research conducted on the subject of rapid-onset antidepressant properties exhibited by the anaesthetic drug ketamine. Ketamine has been proven to have these features. K-ketamine, an isomer of the substance, is examined in terms of its pharmacology and how it has been used to treat chronic and refractory pain, a disease that is typically connected with depression. Specifically, this topic will focus on how K-ketamine has been used to treat patients in the past. In the first wave of clinical trials, researchers showed that a single dose of intravenous ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) was both safe and effective in treating patients who suffered from treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Studies that are more recent are looking at the neurological basis for ketamine's alleged antidepressant benefits, as well as discovering ways to prevent relapse once the symptoms of depression have passed. In addition to more traditional methods of assessing depression, researchers are currently investigating the effects that ketamine has on a person's neurocognition.