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September 14, 2022
According to an American study, ketamine nasal spray shows promising results in rapidly reducing depression and suicidal thoughts, in addition to antidepressant treatment. Other studies highlight the effectiveness of this injectable anesthetic in reducing anxiety and other mental disorders.
Ketamine is a drug traditionally used as a general anesthetic by injection, in particular for short-term surgeries.
A first study in these indications
An American team from the Yale School of Medicine and researchers from the Janssen laboratory conducted the first study to assess the efficacy and tolerance of ketamine nasal spray on symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts in 68 patients considered as at imminent risk of suicide. All patients were hospitalized and receiving antidepressant treatment.
Rapid effectiveness against depression and suicidal thoughts
For this study, researchers randomly assigned (double-blind) patients into two groups to receive either esketamine (an active part of ketamine) as a nasal spray or placebo (substance with no therapeutic activity) , twice a week for 4 weeks. All patients were subjected to validated tests for depression and suicidal ideation before, during and after the study.
In patients receiving esketemine, symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts decreased very significantly, 24 hours after its administration. In the placebo group practically no improvement was found.
All patients were reassessed 25 days after the start of the trial and the improvement persisted at the same level in the group receiving esketamine.
A promising treatment
According to the authors, these results, although preliminary, indicate that ketamine could prove to be a very promising treatment for treating patients who are very depressed and at risk of suicide.
The main adverse effects were nausea, dizziness, bad taste in the mouth and headache. Finally, note that this test was conducted with a substance that does not have this indication (off-label).
Other studies have also shown positive effects of intravenous ketamine. This is the case in this article published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry where the anesthetic product reduces anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. To be continued….