Abstract
Ketamine is a drug that reduces depressive and elicits schizophrenia-like symptoms in humans. However, it is largely unexplored whether women and men differ with respect to ketamine-action and whether age contributes to drug-effects. In this study we assessed dissociative symptoms via the Clinician Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS) in a total of 69 healthy subjects aged between 18 and 30 years (early adulthood) after ketamine or placebo infusion. Dissociative symptoms were generally increased only in the ketamine group post-infusion. Specifically, within the ketamine group, men reported significantly more depersonalization and amnestic symptoms than women. Furthermore, with rising age only men were less affected overall with respect to dissociative symptoms. This suggests a sex-specific protective effect of higher age which may be due to delayed brain maturation in men compared to women. We conclude that it is crucial to include sex and age in studies of drug effects in general and of ketamine-action in specific to tailor more efficient psychiatric treatments.Clinical Trial Registration: EU Clinical Trials Register (EudraCT), trial number: 2010-023414-31.
Highlights
Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist and has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms in humans (Murrough et al, 2013), even for low doses (Xu et al, 2016), leading to rapid acting and long lasting effects
Sex-Specific Effects in the Ketamine Group Depending on Clinician Administered Dissociative Symptoms Scale (CADSS) Subscale
The present study investigated whether dissociative symptoms as induced by the anti-depressive drug ketamine differ as a function of sex and age
Summary
Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist and has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms in humans (Murrough et al, 2013), even for low doses (Xu et al, 2016), leading to rapid acting and long lasting effects. Acute ketamine administration induces transient dissociative symptoms, i.e., a kind of experience of detachment from surroundings, body and time (Sleigh et al, 2014). Despite the long history of ketamine’s use in experimental and clinical medicine, only few studies have addressed the question whether modulatory factors like sex and age may contribute to the effects of ketamine. In animal studies sex-specific effects of repeated ketamine administration
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