Journal article
Oral ketamine effects on dynamics of functional network connectivity in patients treated for chronic suicidality
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience , Vol.275, pp.1347-1357
2025
PMCID: PMC12271241
PMID: 38772940
Appears in Thompson Institute Research Collection
Abstract
The underlying brain mechanisms of ketamine in treating chronic suicidality and the characteristics of patients who will benefit from ketamine treatment remain unclear. To address these gaps, we investigated temporal variations of brain functional synchronisation in patients with suicidality treated with ketamine in a 6-week open-label oral ketamine trial. The trial's primary endpoint was the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS). Patients who experienced greater than 50% improvement in BSS scores or had a BSS score less than 6 at the post-treatment and follow-up (10 weeks) visits were considered responders and persistent responders, respectively. The reoccurring and transient connectivity pattern (termed brain state) from 29 patients (45.6 years ± 14.5, 15 females) were investigated by dynamic functional connectivity analysis of resting-state functional MRI at the baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up. Post-treatment patients showed significantly more (FDR-Q = 0.03) transitions among whole brain states than at baseline. We also observed increased dwelling time (FDR-Q = 0.04) and frequency (FDR-Q = 0.04) of highly synchronised brain state at follow-up, which were significantly correlated with BSS scores (both FDR-Q = 0.008). At baseline, persistent responders had higher fractions (FDR-Q = 0.03, Cohen's d = 1.39) of a cognitive control network state with high connectivities than non-responders. These findings suggested that ketamine enhanced brain changes among different synchronisation patterns and enabled high synchronisation patterns in the long term, providing a possible biological pathway for its suicide-prevention effects. Moreover, differences in cognitive control states at baseline may be used for precise ketamine treatment planning.
Details
- Title
- Oral ketamine effects on dynamics of functional network connectivity in patients treated for chronic suicidality
- Authors
- Zack Y Shan (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteAdem T Can - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteAbdalla Z Mohamed - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteMegan Dutton - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteDaniel F Hermens - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Thompson InstituteVince D Calhoun - Georgia State UniversityLeanne M Williams - Stanford UniversityMaxwell Bennett - The University of SydneyJim Lagopoulos - Thompson Brain and Mind Healthcare (Australia)
- Publication details
- European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience , Vol.275, pp.1347-1357
- Publisher
- Springer Medizin
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00406-024-01831-x
- ISSN
- 1433-8491
- PMID
- 38772940; PMC12271241
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Organisation Unit
- Thompson Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991026564402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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