The letter about the article "Ketamine for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder: Double-blind active-controlled crossover study" that discusses some points about methodology, outcome measures, and results.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a commonly used alternative for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Although esketamine has a rapid pharmacological antidepressant action, it has not been studied as an ECT anesthetic. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of esketamine with propofol when both are used as ECT anesthetic agents. Forty patients with TRD were...
Neuron excitotoxic damage induced by extracellular glutamate accumulation pathologically is one of the main mechanisms of depression. Glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) expressed in astrocyte is responsible for glutamate clearance to maintain glutamate balance. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is prevalently recommended for severe depression due to its significant anti-depressant effect. Esketamine...
Ketamine has recently been shown to be non-inferior to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), one of psychiatry's most effective treatments for depression. Given the novelty of ketamine as well as its interventional nature, ketamine is currently viewed as an alternative to ECT and as such, considered a third-line agent for treatment-refractory depression. However, available data suggest that ketamine...
Growing evidence suggests that repeated-dose intravenous ketamine in patients with depression had rapid antianhedonic effects. However, a comparison of the antianhedonic effects of repeated-dose intravenous ketamine between younger adults and older depressed patients has not been examined. To the best of my knowledge, this study with a total of 135 patients with major depressive episodes (MDE)...
Racemic ketamine intravenous treatments (KIT) are widely used in community clinics for treatment resistant depression (TRD), but we lack studies on symptom improvement during standardized delivery to clinically complex patients with TRD. We aimed to assess depression symptom change for patients receiving standardized KIT for TRD in a large integrated health care delivery system relative to...
Suicidal ideation is a significant symptom associated with mood disorders. Ketamine is an emerging treatment with rapid and robust antidepressant and antisuicidal effects observed in clinical trial populations. Herein we assessed the real-world effectiveness of ketamine in ameliorating suicidality. A retroactive chart analysis of 96 adult TRD patients that received treatment in a private...
Ketamine (KET) is recognized as rapid-acting antidepressant, but its mechanisms of action remain elusive. Considering the role of endocannabinoids (eCB) in stress and depression, we investigated if S-KET antidepressant effects involve the regulation of the eCB system using an established rat model of depression based on selective breeding: the Flinders Sensitive Line (FSL) and their controls,...
Ketamine has demonstrated both rapid and sustained efficacy in treating depression, especially in treatment-resistant cases. However, concerns regarding the addictive potential of ketamine during long-term depression treatment persist among clinicians. This review aimed to summarise the evidence on addiction phenomena associated with ketamine treatment of depression. A comprehensive search was...
Disparities in mental health care access and health outcomes based on sociodemographic factors in the United States have been extensively documented. However, there is limited knowledge regarding these socioeconomic factors with respect to initiation of esketamine nasal spray, a novel therapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). To evaluate the association of socioeconomic factors with the...