Laboratory of Neurotherapeutics

The physiology underlying the effects of ketamine, psychedelics, laughing gas, and other rapid-acting antidepressants .

Depression is ever more common despite the growing investments in mental health care and the use of antidepressants. Conventional antidepressants alleviate the symptoms only after weeks of continuous use, and a third of patients do not benefit from them, although most suffer side effects. Thus, there is a large clinical demand for better treatments. However, to design new treatments, it is crucial to first understand how antidepressants work. 70 years since their discovery, there is still no verdict on how antidepressants alleviate the symptoms of depression.   

However, in contrast to conventional antidepressants, treatments like ketamine, psychedelics, nitrous oxide, electroconvulsive therapy, and sleep deprivation act within hours of a single treatment, with effects lasting up to weeks. As ketamine and laughing gas are removed from the body rapidly after administration, and electroconvulsive therapy and sleep deprivation are physiological in nature, it appears that the therapeutic response arises from the brain itself.  

Our research has uncovered a mechanism through which exposure to the brief treatment boosts brain plasticity and alleviates depressive symptoms. The mechanism is connected to the intrinsic regulation of sleep, energy, and metabolism. By understanding this phenomenon better, we may finally unravel how antidepressants work, opening new avenues for the development of more effective and better-tolerated treatments.  

Learn more about Okko Alitalo from the Laboratory of Neurotherapeutics.

  1. ​Summary of our research.
  2. Thermal camera portrait after a long day of experiments.
  3. Distribution of glucose in brains after laughing gas or medetomidine and thermal images of mice after laughing gas treatment.

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