Feasibility and Safety of Ketamine for Suicidal Patients in the Emergency Department

• Status: Recruiting
• Trial end date: 2025-04-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

There is currently no readily available pharmacologic intervention for suicidal ideation, a true psychiatric emergency, in the Emergency Department (ED). Investigators aim to trial low-dose, intravenous ketamine, a drug with well-established use in treatment-resistant depression, for patients who present to the ED with suicidal ideation.

• Phase: Phase 1
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Lindsay Maguire, MD
• Treatments: Ketamine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Acutely Suicidality ("yes" answer to any of items 4 or 5 on C-SSRS "Suicidal Ideation" category)

• Require inpatient stabilization for SI or actions based on clinical observation and interview

• Are accepted for psychiatric stabilization at the University of Kansas Medical Center's Strawberry Hill campus

• Have a Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of 15

• Age 18-65

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current or past history of psychosis

• Current or recent (past 4 weeks) symptoms of mania/hypomania as defined by Young Mania Rating Scale (YRMS) score of 12 or greater

• History of ketamine use disorder

• History of liver transplant

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding

• Imprisonment or inability to consent

• Positive urine drug screen or serum alcohol level

• Hypertension (SBP > 160 or DBP > 100 before administration of ketamine)

• Hypotension (SBP < 90)

• Presence of acute medical condition requiring admission to medical service

• Allergy, intolerance, or previous adverse reaction to ketamine

• Patient has 8+ lifetime ketamine exposures

• The treating physician determines that the patient is not a good candidate for the study (e.g. medical condition/procedure, medication that would contradindicate ketamine treatment)