Writing Together is a Great Way to Make Friends

And it creates moments of magic for the internet!

Writing—especially here on Substack—has helped change my life for the better. The Frontier Psychiatrists has been a way for me to connect with the world as never before. I have a thing to say, but so do my readers! Some of them have become co-authors, both in these pages and elsewhere. I work at Radial, where we offer esketamine treatment.

It’s just a nice orchid. © Owen Muir 2026

Today, I’m sharing something I co-wrote with Rob Glatter, M.D.—he’s a Northwell faculty member and also works at Roon and Nushama.

Today, over at Healio, we wrote about new data on ketamine! A quick taste!

A recent study published in Molecular Psychiatry provides important insight into this question. Using advanced positron emission tomography imaging, researchers from Yokohama City University were able to directly visualize activity at AMPA receptors (AMPARs) in the living human brain, a key component of glutamate signaling.

Glutamate is the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter and plays a central role in synaptic plasticity, which is the ability of neural connections to strengthen, weaken and reorganize. Increasingly, researchers believe depression may involve disruptions in these plasticity mechanisms rather than simply “imbalances in chemicals.”

…

In the study, investigators used a specialized PET tracer called [¹¹C]K-2, which binds to AMPARs, allowing scientists to observe receptor dynamics in the living brain. Across three separate clinical trials, researchers examined 34 patients with TRD and 49 healthy controls.

Their findings were striking. Patients with TRD demonstrated altered AMPAR patterns in brain regions associated with mood regulation and reward processing. After ketamine treatment, these receptor patterns shifted in ways that appeared to normalize neural signaling. Most notably, the magnitude of these changes correlated with improvements in depressive symptoms.

You should read the whole thing.

Also, writing together is a great way to make friends and connect with other colleagues. I had a blast working with Rob on this article, and there's more to come from us, but I encourage all of you to do the same if you're inclined.

Collaborating is a great way to do something socially that is also gonna go on your CV. You're making a friend, and you're getting work done at the same time.

Making friends is probably the more important part, but I'm proud of what we were able to write together, and it's better because of the collaboration.

Thanks for reading this, and consider writing something with a colleague, too!