Sleep-administered ketamine/psychedelics: A streamlined strategy to address two challenges in research on ketamine and psychedelics

TL;DR

This paper suggests giving ketamine or psychedelics during sleep to avoid dissociative effects and reduce bias in research.

Contribution

Proposes a novel administration method during sleep to bypass dissociation and placebo bias in ketamine and psychedelic studies.

Findings

Administering ketamine/psychedelics during sleep could eliminate dissociative side effects.

This approach may reduce placebo bias by removing subjective experiences during treatment.

Abstract

The dissociative effects of ketamine and psychedelics might be associated with their rapid antidepressant properties, raising questions about whether these effects are necessary for their therapeutic action. Additionally, the distinct dissociative experiences often reported by patients in clinical trials may reveal whether they receive an active treatment or a placebo, potentially introducing bias into the results. In this viewpoint, we propose administering ketamine/psychedelics to patients during sleep, offering a novel approach to address and explore these challenges.