Improvement in depressive symptoms in a patient with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa and comorbid major depressive disorder using psychotherapy-assisted IV ketamine : a case report.
Amanda Timek, Catherine Daniels-Brady, Stephen Ferrando
Journal of Eating Disorders June 12, 2024 DOI: 10.1186/s40337-024-01039-3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | 33-year-old woman with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa and comorbid major depressive disorder |
| Interventions | Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy Intravenous ketamine Acceptance and commitment therapy |
| Duration | Seven sessions |
| Topics | Depression Esketamine Ketamine Psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Keywords | Case report Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy Ketamine therapy Eating disorders Treatment-resistant mental illness Innovative psychiatry |
| Citations | 8 |
| Key findings | Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy was safely used in a patient with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa and comorbid major depressive disorder, leading to increased cognitive flexibility, disappearance of suicidal ideation, and reduced depression scores. |
Abstract
Anorexia nervosa is a life-threatening psychiatric illness with a high mortality rate and limited treatment options. This illness is frequently comorbid with major depressive disorder, leading to additional obstacles in patient quality of life, and increasing the mortality rate further due to risk of suicide. Ketamine, a competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, has been shown to be beneficial in depression given its effects on neuroplasticity. There are few cases in the literature describing ketamine use in patients with eating disorders, and even fewer that describe psychotherapy-assisted ketamine use in this patient population. We present the case of a 33-year-old woman with a history of severe and enduring anorexia nervosa and comorbid major depressive disorder who we treated safely with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy using intravenous ketamine in a general hospital setting. Our patient is a 33-year-old woman with past psychiatric history of severe and enduring anorexia nervosa and major depressive disorder with comorbid psychiatric and medical conditions who presented to the hospital due to malnutrition. She had an extensive psychiatric history as well as multiple medical hospitalizations due to her eating disorder. She had tried numerous psychiatric treatments, including antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, electroconvulsive therapy, and multiple types of therapies without significant improvement in symptoms. She agreed to try ketamine for treatment-resistant depression and received it intravenously for seven sessions in a closely monitored setting, and simultaneously engaged in acceptance and commitment therapy during sessions. She demonstrated increased cognitive flexibility, disappearance of suicidal ideation, and reduction in Beck Depression Inventory Scores. Our case is unique in that it demonstrates the successful usage of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in a hospital setting with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa and comorbid major depressive disorder. Her body mass index was profoundly low at 13, whereas the lowest documented in the literature was 16.9. This case shows that ketamine-assisted psychotherapy may be a promising treatment modality for patients with anorexia nervosa with co-morbid depression who have failed other interventions.
Comparable studies
Other case reports and case series on ketamine for depression, most cited first.