Emerging evidence for antidepressant actions of anesthetic agents.
Current opinion in anaesthesiology August 1, 2018 Scott C Tadler, Brian J Mickey
Several anesthetic drugs show promise as novel antidepressants for treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine has acute, transient antidepressant and antisuicidal effects. Nitrous oxide has also shown antidepressant efficacy. Converging preclinical and clinical data indicate that isoflurane (and perhaps propofol), dosed to burst suppression, produces relatively rapid, robust, and durable antidepressant effects without the adverse cognitive effects associated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Ketamine is the most well-studied among them. Anesthetic-induced burst suppression may offer an alternative to ECT. Further study is needed to understand how these drugs work and how they might be used effectively.