Efficacy of Repeated Ketamine Infusions for Treatment-resistant Depression
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2019-03-19
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
About one-third of depressed patients will not get better after multiple antidepressant
treatments. This situation put a high burden on patients with depression due to worsening
quality of life and increasing health care costs. Difficult-to-treat depression might be even
worse among Veterans given that the frequency of depressive symptoms is 2 to 5 times higher
than among the general US population. A breakthrough discovery happened in recent years when
investigators found that one infusion from an old anesthetic named ketamine showed high
efficacy and rapid antidepressant effect (sometimes within hours) but lasted only up to a
week. The investigators propose to study if multiple infusions of ketamine can provide
greater and longer antidepressant effects than one infusion. If that is the case, multiple
infusions could be an alternative to relieve depressive symptoms that do not response to
multiple antidepressant drugs.
Phase:
Phase 2
Details
Lead Sponsor:
VA Office of Research and Development
Collaborators:
Mayo Clinic University of Minnesota University of Minnesota, MN