Single-dose Ketamine Treatment to Improve Depression in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2025-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Ketamine is a NMDA-receptor antagonist that promotes synapse formation and has been shown to
rapidly improve symptoms in depression. Even a single dose of ketamine has been shown to
improve depression and cognition with short-term memory, inhibitory control, cognitive
flexibility, and processing speed showing improvements within days of treatment. The
mechanism behind ketamine's rapid action is not clear but some groups have speculated it may
be related to enhanced neuroplasticity, particularly in the frontal areas and the
hippocampus. If this mechanism is accurate, ketamine may be especially effective in treating
mild cognitive impairment and depression (MCI-D) where changes in the hippocampus and frontal
areas have been implicated. Although few studies have been published on the effects of
ketamine in older adults, some small pilot studies suggest that ketamine treatment might be
effective in improving depression in older adults and relatively safe. There are no studies
looking at the effects of ketamine treatment in patients with MCI-D. The research team
hypothesize that IV ketamine treatment will be well-tolerated and will improve depression and
cognition in patients with MCI-D. The study team will explore the effects of brain imaging
abnormalities and amyloid biomarker status on the responsiveness to ketamine. The study team
will conduct an open-label pilot study designed to gather data to support an application for
a larger NIH-funded study.