One third of the patients with major depressive disorder suffer from treatment resistance and do not respond to commonly used antidepressants. Ketamine, a drug that works through a different mechanism, improves depressive symptoms within hours and is particularly effective in treatment-resistant patients. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have for the first time identified metabolite alterations, affected pathways and biomarker candidates for the Ketamine treatment response in mice. An improved understanding of the molecular events causing the rapid antidepressant effect of Ketamine will allow the development of alternative drugs with a similar mode of action but fewer side effects.
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