Ketamine effective for treatment-resistant depression: Clinical trial (20% total remission in one month)

Medical Xpress / University of New South Wales / The British Journal of Psychiatry ^ | July 13, 2023 | Colleen Loo et al

[ConservativeMind]

A low-cost version of ketamine to treat severe depression has performed strongly in a double-blind trial that compared it with placebo.

Researchers found that more than one in five participants achieved total remission from their symptoms after a month of bi-weekly injections, while a third had their symptoms improve by at least 50 percent.

"For people with treatment-resistant depression—so those who have not benefitted from different modes of talk-therapy, commonly prescribed antidepressants, or electroconvulsive therapy—20 percent remission is actually quite good," Professor Colleen Loo says.

"We found that in this trial, ketamine was clearly better than the placebo—with 20 percent reporting they no longer had clinical depression compared with only 2 percent in the placebo group. This is a huge and very obvious difference and brings definitive evidence to the field which only had past smaller trials that compared ketamine with placebo."

The researchers recruited 179 people with treatment-resistant depression. All were given an injection of either a generic form of ketamine that is already widely available in Australia as a drug for anesthesia and sedation—or placebo. Participants received two injections a week in a clinic where they were monitored for around two hours while acute dissociative and sedative effects wore off—usually within the first hour. The treatment ran for a month and participants were asked to assess their mood at the end of the trial and one month later.

[ConservativeMind]

One third had at least a 50% decrease in symptoms.

It’s a good use of an existing drug.

[EEGator]

I know people who misuse it. (misused...past)

[ConservativeMind]

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[Tailback]

What is Ketamine? I’ve never heard of it.

[Ikeon]

I know people who misuse it

Ive heard stories about the "K" people. mellow as all when on in, but filty. and when not on it they will steal and try and sell anything not nailed down. Worse than copper stealing meth heads.

I also can state Ive been given ketamine for an operation. And I came out feeling great.