The Mechanisms Behind Rapid Antidepressant Effects of Ketamine: A Systematic Review With a Focus on Molecular Neuroplasticity.

The mechanism of action underlying ketamine's rapid antidepressant effects in patients with depression, both suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD), including treatment resistant depression (TRD), remains unclear. Of the many speculated routes that ketamine may act through, restoring deficits in neuroplasticity may be the most parsimonious mechanism in both human patients and preclinical models of depression. Here, we conducted a literature search using PubMed for any reports of ketamine inducing neuroplasticity relevant to depression, to identify cellular and molecular events, relevant to neuroplasticity, immediately observed with rapid mood improvements in humans or antidepressant-like effects in animals.

Screening for bipolar disorders in Spanish-speaking populations: sensitivity and specificity of the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale-Spanish Version.

Background: Bipolar disorder is commonly misdiagnosed, perhaps more so in Latin American and Spanish-speaking populations than in the United States. The Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS) is a 19-item screening instrument designed to assist in screening for all types of bipolar disorder.

Methods: The authors investigated the sensitivity of a Spanish-language version of the BSDS in a cohort of 65 outpatients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, based on a semi-structured interview and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision criteria.

[Socio-demographic aspects of the temperaments evaluation according the Argentine TEMPS-A].

The aim of the present work was to extend different aspects from the validation of the scale of Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego, argentine version, TEMPS-A (Buenos Aires), done by Vázquez et al (2007), whose purpose is the study of the affective temperaments. An exploratory, transversal and not experimental study was made and for such aim a sample of 938 subjects in different cities of Argentina: Buenos Aires, La Plata and San Luis. We considered the age of the subjects, the gender, the civil state, the educative level and the locality to which they belonged.

[Argentine consensus on the treatment of bipolar disorders].

The consensus guidelines of argentine experts in the treatment of bipolar disorders are the result of three days of work of the 10 main local experts under the organization of the Argentine Association of Biological Psychiatry (AAPB). It was adopted a mixed criterion for its preparation: all the recent data of the evidence medicine based published until now were discussed and were balanced with the knowledge acquired from clinical experience of the local experts on the bipolar field. It presents general recommendations and suggested therapeutic sequences for the phase of maintenance, the manic/hypomanic or mixed episode and the depressive episode.