Dissertation
Stress, ketamine and mental disorder: changing the brain, changing the treatment, changing the paradigm
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00815
Appears in Thompson Institute Research Collection
Abstract
Mental disorders have severe health and socioeconomic consequences1, indicating an urgent need to understand the neurobiological basis and identify more effective pharmacological treatments. In this PhD candidature, stress related pathology is posited as an underpinning mechanism of major depressive disorder (MDD) and associated chronic suicidality and the rapid acting, brain changing drug, ketamine, is examined as an effective prototype treatment targeting the purported psychopathology.
Stress paradigms and the experience of stress are commonly utilised in models of emerging mental illness. Furthermore, neurobiological systems are implicated as the intermediary link between the experience of psychological stress and the development of mental disorders2. The studies presented here further examine specific stress modulating neurobiological and neurochemical systems, which underpin the stress-related deleterious structural and functional brain changes observed in disorders such as MDD. These changes may contribute not only to the development of disorders, but also to the treatment resistance and chronicity seen in some of our most challenging mental disorders, including depression and suicidality.
This PhD presents evidence for stress related pathology as the underlying driver of mental disorders such as MDD and how oral ketamine treatment, which enables rapid shifts in symptoms and robust recovery, promotes fundamental recovery processes that ameliorate the impacts of chronic stress on the brain. The approach undertaken within this PhD examines a potential paradigm shift towards more personalised and effective treatments for intractable mental illnesses. Data from the Oral Ketamine Trial on Suicidality (OKTOS) (see section 1.3 and Appendix) which ran between August 2018 and October 2019, is utilised in this study and chronic suicidality is considered as an example of a stress induced mental disorder.
Details
- Title
- Stress, ketamine and mental disorder: changing the brain, changing the treatment, changing the paradigm
- Authors
- Megan Dutton - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson Institute
- Contributors
- Daniel Hermens (Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteJim Lagopoulos (Supervisor) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson Institute
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00815
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Thompson Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99996895702621
- Output Type
- Dissertation
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