18/04/2021

Ketamine normalizes hyperactivity in key brain region of depressed patients

There is no shortage of psychological and pharmacological therapies to combat the world’s most widespread mental health issue, major depressive disorder (MDD). However, a significant portion of the affected population fail to respond to many of these traditional therapies. For this reason, new drugs must be tested and validated. One promising candidate is ketamine –famously but somewhat improperly known as a horse tranquilizer.

However, the manner by which ketamine acts is not well known, meaning that clinicians are still circumspect regarding its use in treating MDD. Recently, researchers in New York look at how ketamine affects the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), a region of the brain whose hyperactivity has proven ties to MDD. The recent study, which appeared in Neuropsychopharmacology, helps bridge this gap in the literature.

Full Article: https://www.psypost.org/2021/04/ketamine-normalizes-hyperactivity-in-key-brain-region-of-depressed-patients-60295

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