Intravenous ketamine and intranasal esketamine can help improve symptoms of depression: Study
Intravenous ketamine and intranasal esketamine can help improve symptoms of depression among adults, as per a recent study published in the JAMA Psychiatry.
Although intravenous racemic ketamine has rapid antidepressant properties, it is not approved for depression treatment. However, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved intranasal esketamine for treatment-resistant depression. Correia-Melo et al. treated 63 participants with intravenous ketamine or esketamine and observed that esketamine was noninferior to ketamine. A recent meta-analysis suggested that intravenous ketamine was more effective,3 but the only head-to-head trial included was from Correia-Melo et al., rendering interpretation difficult. To our knowledge, no multidose, head-to-head comparisons of these treatments have been reported.
"The most important finding of our study is that both esketamine and [intravenous] ketamine can help alleviate symptoms in patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression, as long as they are provided in an evidence-based manner and with rigorous clinical standards," Sina Nikayin, MD, assistant professor of psychology at Yale University School of Medicine, told Healio.
Nikayin and colleagues reviewed retrospective data for all Yale Interventional Psychiatry Service patients who received IV ketamine or intranasal esketamine from September 2016 through April 2021.
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