Major Depressive Disorder

In this video, Dr. Lane talked about major depression and how ketamine can affect the brain region as a treatment for major depression. Nowadays, there are more and more research on digital tools helping therapists on coping with depression. In the “see also the link” below, we provide two more studies. Please take a quick review on them: Digital health technology for use in patients with serious mental illness: a systematic review of the literature and Study highlights the benefits of digital mental health therapies

In the first study, the research results show how digital technologies seem to be feasible for short-term use in patients with serious mental illness. However, long-term effectiveness data is still required to demonstrate the use of digital technologies applying in the mental health-care system. In the second article, it is a study conducted by SilverCloud Health. The research emphasises how digital cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) can deliver strong clinical improvements and recovery.

As you can find out, more and more research has been demonstrated to study the efficiency of digital treatment comparing with conventional face-to-face mental health therapy. However, lacking of long-term research becomes obvious. We will talk about evaluation in later step.

For more information on ketamine and depression, please check the see also link Ketamine and depression: a narrative review. This paper is a reference, please mark complete to continue if you wish to skip this article. As mentioned both in the video and this review, ketamine provided a rapid antidepressant effect with a maximum efficacy reached at 24 hrs. Its effect lasted for 1–2 weeks after infusion, but a longer-term effect is little reported. Hence, ketamine does not seem to improve depressive symptoms at the end of electroconvulsive sessions. The level of proof of efficacy remains low and more trials are needed to explore efficacy and safety issues of ketamine in depression.