Ketamine + Cognitive Training for Suicidality in the Medical Setting

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Trial end date: 2026-03-02
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

This project seeks to identify the acute and longer-term impact of a single dose of intravenous ketamine among suicidal patients referred for psychiatric consultation/liaison in the medical inpatient setting. The investigators will then test whether ketamine's rapid effects can be extended by introducing helpful information delivered by a computer-based training protocol. This work could ultimately lead to the ability to treat suicidality more efficiently and with broader dissemination by rapidly priming the brain for helpful forms of learning.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Rebecca Price
• Collaborator: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• Treatments: Ketamine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Participants who receive ketamine will:

1. be between the ages of 18 and 65 years

2. be a medical inpatient referred for psychiatric consultation/liaison due to suicidality and determined by psychiatric C/L to require inpatient psychiatric hospitalization

3. possess a level of judgment and understanding sufficient to agree to all procedures required by the protocol and must sign an informed consent document

4. be deemed an appropriate and reasonable medical candidate for intravenous ketamine by a physician authorized to prescribe medication to the patient during inpatient hospitalization

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Presence of current/acute psychosis, mania, delirium, or dementia, or a diagnosis of developmental disorder with significant language and/or intellectual impairment

2. Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) < 23

3. Current pregnancy or breastfeeding

4. Reading level <5th grade as per WRAT-3 reading subtest AND patient declines to have all questionnaire items and task instructions read aloud to them at all assessment points

5. Past intolerance or hypersensitivity to ketamine or esketamine

6. Patients taking St John's Wort

7. Patients who have received ECT in the past 6 months prior to intake

8. Patients at ongoing risk for severe substance or alcohol withdrawal related issues (e.g., delirium tremens, severe opiate withdrawal) or who present with substance-induced psychosis

9. Patients who, based on expressed preference and/or home geographic location, are deemed by the Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison service to be likely to receive inpatient psychiatric hospitalization at an alternate location outside of Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic

10. Arrested individuals brought in by the legal system for medical stabilization