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Elderly see little overall benefit from intranasal esketamine with antidepressant

The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update March 1, 2020 DOI: 10.1002/pu.30541 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed
Population Elderly patients with treatment-resistant depression
Interventions Esketamine nasal spray oral antidepressant
Duration 28 days
Topics Esketamine
Key findings Esketamine nasal spray plus an oral antidepressant did not improve depression symptoms overall over 28 days in elderly patients with treatment-resistant depression. A younger subgroup and patients with earlier onset of depression showed some improvement with esketamine.

Abstract

Elderly patients with treatment‐resistant depression did not see overall improvement in depression symptoms over 28 days with use of esketamine nasal spray plus an oral antidepressant, a placebo‐controlled Phase 3 study has found. A younger subgroup of the overall study sample, as well as patients with earlier onset of depression, showed some improvement with esketamine, the researchers reported. Study results were published online Oct. 17, 2019, in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Comparable studies

Other randomized controlled trials on esketamine, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Efficacy and Safety of Flexibly Dosed Esketamine Nasal Spray Combined With a Newly Initiated Oral Antidepressant in Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Randomized Double-Blind Active-Controlled Study Adults with moderate to severe nonpsychotic depression and a history of nonresponse to... 2019 Phase 3, double-blind, active-controlled, multicenter randomized controlled trial n = 227
Efficacy of Esketamine Nasal Spray Plus Oral Antidepressant Treatment for Relapse Prevention in Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression Adults with treatment-resistant depression who achieved stable remission or stable... 2019 Phase 3, multicenter, double-blind, randomized withdrawal study n = 297
Efficacy and Safety of Intranasal Esketamine Adjunctive to Oral Antidepressant Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression Adults with DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of major depressive disorder and history of inadequate... 2017 Phase 2, double-blind, doubly randomized, delayed-start, placebo-controlled study n = 67
Efficacy and Safety of Intranasal Esketamine for the Rapid Reduction of Symptoms of Depression and Suicidality in Patients at Imminent Risk for Suicide: Results of a Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study Depressed patients at imminent risk for suicide 2018 Randomized controlled trial n = 68
Efficacy and Safety of Fixed-Dose Esketamine Nasal Spray Combined With a New Oral Antidepressant in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Results of a Randomized, Double-Blind, Active-Controlled Study (TRANSFORM-1) Adults with moderate-to-severe depression and nonresponse to at least two... 2019 Randomized controlled trial n = 346

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Esketamine Depression