Cited by 279Treatment of Major DepressionElectroconvulsive Therapy StudiesTryptophan and brain disorders

The use of ketamine as an antidepressant: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Open access
Coyle, Caoimhe M., Laws, Keith R.·2015·Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental

Abstract

Objective: The current meta‐analysis examines the effects of ketamine infusion on depressive symptoms over time in major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Methods: Following a systematic review of the literature, data were extracted from 21 studies (n = 437 receiving ketamine) and analysed at four post‐infusion time points (4 h, 24 h, 7 days and 12–14 days). The moderating effects of several factors were assessed including: repeat/single infusion, diagnosis, open‐label/participant‐blind infusion, pre–post/placebo‐controlled design and the sex of patients. Results: Effect sizes were significantly larger for repeat than single infusion at 4 h, 24 h and 7 days. For single infusion studies, effect sizes were large and significant at 4 h, 24 h and 7 days. The percentage of males was a predictor of antidepressant response at 7 days. Effect sizes for open‐label and participant‐blind infusions were not significantly different at any time point. Conclusions: Single ketamine infusions elicit a significant antidepressant effect from 4 h to 7 days; the small number of studies at 12–14 days post infusion failed to reach significance. Results suggest a discrepancy in peak response time depending upon primary diagnosis — 24 h for MDD and 7 days for BD. The majority of published studies have used pre–post comparison; further placebo‐controlled studies would help to clarify the effect of ketamine over time. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/hup.2475

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 10

  1. Cho H-S, D'Souza DC, Gueorguieva R, Perry EB, Madonick S, Karper LP, Abi-Dargham A, Lipschitz D, Bennet A, Seibyl JP, Krystal JH. (2005). Absence of behavioral sensitization in healthy human subjects following repeated exposure to ketamine. Psychopharmacology, 179(1): 136-143.
  2. Egger M, Davey Smith G, Schneider M, Minder C. Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. BMJ 1997; 315: 629-34.
  3. Hillemacher T, Bleich S, Demling J, Kornhuber J. 2007. Ketamine for the treatment of depression: what about the addictive potential? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 41(9): 772-773.
  4. Kollmar R, Markovic K, Thurauf N, Schmitt H, Kornhuber J. 2008. Ketamine followed by memantine for the treatment of major depression. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 42(2): 170-170.
  5. Liebrenz M, Borgeat A, Leisinger R, Stohler R. 2007. Intravenous ketamine therapy in a patient with a treatment-resistant major depression. Swiss Medical Weekly 137(15-16): 234- 236.
  6. Liebrenz M, Stohler R, Borgeat A. 2009. Repeated intravenous ketamine therapy in a patient with treatment-resistant major depression. World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 10(4): 640-643. doi: 10.3109/15622970701420481 · DOI
  7. Perry Jr EB, Cramer JA, Cho H-S, Petrakis IL, Karper LP, Genovese A, O'Donnell E, Krystal JH, D'Souza DC. 2007. Psychiatric safety of ketamine in psychopharmacology research. Psychopharmacology 192(2), 253-260.
  8. Price, Rebecca B., Dan V. Iosifescu, James W. Murrough, Lee C. Chang, Rayan K. Al Jurdi, Syed Z. Iqbal, Laili Soleimani, Dennis S. Charney, Alexandra L. Foulkes, and Sanjay J. Mathew. 2014. Effects of ketamine on explicit and implicit suicidal cognition: a randomized controlled trial in treatment-resistant depression. Depression and anxiety 31(4): 335-343.
  9. Salvadore G, Cornwell BR, Sambataro F, Latov D, Colon-Rosario V, Carver F, Zarate CA Jr. 2010. Anterior Cingulate Desynchronization and Functional Connectivity with the Amygdala During a Working Memory Task Predict Rapid Antidepressant Response to Ketamine. Neuropsychopharmacology 35(7): 1415-1422. doi: 10.1038/npp.2010. · DOI
  10. Sos P, Klirova M, Novak T, Kohutova B, Horacek J, Palenicek T. 2013. Relationship of ketamine's antidepressant and psychotomimetic effects in unipolar depression. Neuroendocrinology Letters 34(4):287-293

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Coyle, C. M., & Laws, K. R.
Affiliations
University of Hertfordshire (GB)
Corresponding author
Laws, Keith R.
Venue
Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-04-07
Volume
30
Issue
3
Pages
152-163
ISSN
  • 0885-6222 (ISSN-L)
  • 1099-1077
OpenAlex
W2106636235
Cited by
279
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 9
FWCI
3.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (acceptedVersion)
  • University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (University of Hertfordshire) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Electroconvulsive Therapy Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
Keywords
ketamine, antidepressant effects, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, sex differences
MeSH terms
Antidepressive Agents, Bipolar Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Major, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Infusions, Intravenous, Ketamine, Male, Sex Factors, Time Factors, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review