Comparative Efficacy of Ketamine in Treatment-Resistant Depression
Hatice Guncu Kurt, Murat Altinay, Amit Anand
Psychiatric Annals February 1, 2020 DOI: 10.3928/00485713-20200113-01 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Randomized Placebo-controlled Open-label Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Patients with treatment-resistant depression |
| Topics | Depression Esketamine Ketamine |
| Key findings | Ketamine and electroconvulsive therapy have response and remission rates at the higher end of the ranges seen for other treatments for treatment-resistant depression, with the advantage of fast action. |
Abstract
Patients who have not responded to two antidepressant trials in their current depressive episode are usually considered to have treatment-resistant depression (TRD). A detailed search on PubMed was conducted for reported response and remission rates for non-ketamine and ketamine treatments for TRD. From a variety of pharmacological and brain stimulation open-label studies, the treatments were found to have similar response and remission rates of 30% to 70% and 20% to 50%, respectively. For randomized placebo-controlled trials, reported response and remission rates were 15% to 60% and 10% to 40%, respectively. Ketamine and electroconvulsive therapy both have response and remission rates at the higher end of these ranges, and their significant advantage is their fast action in an acute setting. Direct comparative efficacy studies with large sample sizes will be needed to establish any margin of increased benefit of one treatment modality compared to the other. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2020;50(2):62–67.]
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on ketamine for depression, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synthesizing the Evidence for Ketamine and Esketamine in Treatment-Resistant Depression: An International Expert Opinion on the Available Evidence and Implementation Adults with treatment-resistant depression | 2021 | Review | |
| Ketamine: a paradigm shift for depression research and treatment | 2019 | Review | |
| Rapid‐acting antidepressant ketamine, its metabolites and other candidates: A historical overview and future perspective | 2019 | Review | |
| Ketamine: A tale of two enantiomers | 2020 | Review | |
| Molecular mechanisms underlying the antidepressant actions of arketamine: beyond the NMDA receptor | 2021 | Review |