Ketamine’s Actions on Rumination Mechanisms as an Antidepressant

Rumination and anhedonia are two of the most common characteristics of depression that persist during remission and are not easily targeted by commonly prescribed antidepressants. Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, has emerged within the last decade as a potent, fast-acting antidepressant that can significantly improve anhedonia as early as two hours after a single infusion. The brain mechanisms, however, by which ketamine exerts its antidepressant action remain largely unknown.

The aim of this study is to examine the early antidepressant action of ketamine, 2h post infusion, in patients who remitted from depression using fMRI. Participants are scanned while performing a personalised, autobiographical, emotional memory task and a monetary reward task. Ketamine is expected to reduce the activation of limbic areas such as the amygdala during emotional memory recall. Increased activations after ketamine are expected in reward processing areas, including striatal regions.

Topic Depression
Compound Placebo Ketamine
Country United Kingdom
Visit trial
Status Completed
Results Published
Start date 09 January 2014
End date 05 January 2018
Phase Not Applicable
Design Blinded
Type Interventional
Generation First
Participants 37
Sex All
Age 18- 50
Therapy No

Trial Details

Rumination and anhedonia are two of the most common characteristics of depression that persist during remission and are not easily targeted by commonly prescribed antidepressants. Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, has emerged within the last decade as a potent, fast-acting antidepressant that can significantly improve anhedonia as early as two hours after a single infusion. The brain mechanisms, however, by which ketamine exerts its antidepressant action remain largely unknown. The aim of this study is to examine the early antidepressant action of ketamine, 2h post infusion, in patients who remitted from depression using fMRI. Participants are scanned while performing a personalised, autobiographical, emotional memory task and a monetary reward task. Ketamine is expected to reduce the activation of limbic areas such as the amygdala during emotional memory recall. Increased activations after ketamine are expected in reward processing areas, including striatal regions.

Trial Number NCT04656886

Sponsors & Collaborators

King's College London
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London is one of Europe's top centres for mental health and related neurosciences research.

Johnson & Johnson
One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Johnson & Johnson are responsible for bringing esketamine to market in the form of Spravato.

Data attribution

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