Age affects temporal response, but not durability, to serial ketamine infusions for treatment refractory depression
Steven Pennybaker, Brian J Roach, Susanna L Fryer, Anusha Badathala, Art W Wallace, Daniel H. Mathalon, Tobias F Marton
medRxiv Preprint Server August 31, 2020 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2020.08.31.20185538 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Population | Veterans receiving serial intravenous ketamine infusions for treatment refractory depression |
| Intervention | Intravenous ketamine infusions |
| Topics | Depression Ketamine Esketamine |
| Keywords | Age Treatment efficacy |
| Key findings | Older age is associated with slower onset and shorter durability of ketamine's antidepressant effects in veterans with treatment-refractory depression. |
Abstract
Background Ketamine is a rapid-acting treatment for patients with treatment refractory depression (TRD), however treatment responses are often transient and ketamine’s antidepressant action lacks robust clinical durability. Little is known about which patient characteristics are associated with faster or more durable ketamine responses. Ketamine’s antidepressant mechanism is proposed to involve modulation of glutamatergic signaling leading to long term potentiation (LTP) and synaptogenesis, and these neuroplasticity pathways have been shown to be attenuated with older age. We therefore investigated the impact of patient age on the speed and durability of ketamine’s antidepressant effects in veterans receiving serial intravenous ketamine infusions for TRD.