The standard of care for clinical depression has significant limitations: traditional drugs that focus on monoamine neurotransmitters can take several weeks to be effective, and many patients never respond to any form of treatment. Several clinical trials have demonstrated strikingly better outcomes using the anesthetic ketamine to treat depression. Notably, a single application can have rapid and lasting antidepressant effects in patients who do not respond to other treatments. Because ketamine is an antagonist of NMDA-type glutamate receptors, research is focused on the role of glutamate neurotransmission in depression and on drug development that targets the glutamatergic system. The March 25, 2013, meeting of the Academy's Biochemical Pharmacology Discussion Group, Treatment-resistant Depression: Glutamate, Stress Hormones, and their Role in the Regeneration of Neurons, presented this new research and the avenues it is opening for the treatment of depression.
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