Rachel Fremont, Oneysha Brown, Adriana Feder, James Murrough
{"title":"Ketamine for Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: State of the Field.","authors":"Rachel Fremont, Oneysha Brown, Adriana Feder, James Murrough","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20230006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and debilitating condition. Although several psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments are recommended for PTSD, many individuals do not respond to treatment or respond only partially, highlighting a critical need for additional treatments. Ketamine has the potential to address this therapeutic need. This review discusses how ketamine emerged as a rapid-acting antidepressant and has become a potential treatment for PTSD. A single dose of intravenous (IV) ketamine has been shown to facilitate rapid reduction of PTSD symptoms. Repeated IV ketamine administration significantly improved PTSD symptoms, compared with midazolam, in a predominantly civilian sample of individuals with PTSD. However, in a veteran and military population, repeated IV ketamine did not significantly reduce PTSD symptoms. Further study of ketamine as a treatment for PTSD is necessary, including which populations benefit most from this therapy and the potential benefits of combining psychotherapy and ketamine.</p>","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10316217/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20230006","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/6/28 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and debilitating condition. Although several psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatments are recommended for PTSD, many individuals do not respond to treatment or respond only partially, highlighting a critical need for additional treatments. Ketamine has the potential to address this therapeutic need. This review discusses how ketamine emerged as a rapid-acting antidepressant and has become a potential treatment for PTSD. A single dose of intravenous (IV) ketamine has been shown to facilitate rapid reduction of PTSD symptoms. Repeated IV ketamine administration significantly improved PTSD symptoms, compared with midazolam, in a predominantly civilian sample of individuals with PTSD. However, in a veteran and military population, repeated IV ketamine did not significantly reduce PTSD symptoms. Further study of ketamine as a treatment for PTSD is necessary, including which populations benefit most from this therapy and the potential benefits of combining psychotherapy and ketamine.