A recent study found that ketamine infusion therapy was associated with significant reductions in self-reported symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts, with stable effects observed during the maintenance phase. This research Affective Disorder Journalprovides valuable insight into the practical efficacy of ketamine therapy and provides evidence that it can lead to significant and sustained improvement in symptoms.
Ketamine infusion therapy is a treatment for depression that uses ketamine as an infusion. It has been proven to be a quick and effective treatment for depression. Studies show that her single infusion of ketamine rapidly relieves symptoms of depression in her 50-70% of patients, but most patients relapse within her two weeks.
Ketamine clinics have opened nationwide and offer a variety of infusion therapies. A recent analysis of real outpatients treated at a hospital suggested that repeat ketamine therapy was associated with improvement in approximately 20% of patients. However, detailed data on the efficacy of intravenous ketamine therapy in real-world settings are limited. This study aimed to measure the effects of intravenous ketamine therapy on both depression and anxiety symptoms.
“I am interested in this topic because intravenous ketamine is not FDA-approved for depression, so there are no randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this treatment. Because there are very few,” the study authors said. Allison McInnes, Vice President of Science at Osmind. “Therefore, it is important to generate real evidence from patients treated with intravenous ketamine therapy in the community to convince insurance companies that the treatment is effective and should be covered.”
To conduct the study, researchers collected data from 2,758 patients who received intravenous ketamine at 10 locations across the United States. Patients were treated from August 2017 to March 2020, and data were collected from electronic medical records. The researchers collected demographic information, such as age and gender, as well as clinical diagnoses and outcome measures, such as the 7-item generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) and 16-item depressive symptom self-report (QIDS) scales.
However, approximately 40% of patients drop out before completing the minimum required number of infusions, meaning that the reported efficacy of ketamine therapy may be exaggerated. To address this issue, the researchers analyzed data from his two independent datasets. One included patients who were evaluated for ketamine therapy but did not, and the other included patients treated with conventional antidepressants.
The researchers aimed to determine whether intravenous ketamine therapy provided superior therapeutic efficacy by comparing results with these control groups.
During the lead-in phase, which involved four to eight injections over 28 days, the researchers found that intravenous ketamine therapy led to significant reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms. The mean QIDS score decreased from 18.0 at baseline to 9.6 post-implementation, indicating a change from severe depression to mild depression. Similarly, the average GAD-7 score decreased from 15.2 to 8.6 after induction.
A significant proportion of patients responded to treatment, 49.2% with depression and 47.5% with anxiety. Symptom relief was both statistically and clinically significant.
Compared with the control group, the intravenous ketamine group had significantly reduced symptoms of depression and were less likely to get worse at follow-up. The results also showed that intravenous ketamine therapy significantly reduced depressive symptoms at all follow-up time points compared to standard antidepressant monotherapy.
“Intravenous ketamine therapy yields robust effect sizes for treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. 70% of these patients showed improvement and 50% were free of suicidal ideation after the first two-week course of treatment.Patient response to intravenous ketamine therapy is It remained stable through follow-up maintenance therapy.”
new discoveries are consistent in a previous study In this study, researchers analyzed data from 9,016 patients who received intravenous ketamine. They found that most clinicians followed a similar regimen involving an initial induction phase of 4-8 ketamine infusions over 2-4 weeks, followed by maintenance infusions at various intervals.
“It was more satisfying than surprising to identify a group of late responders who achieved response after 10 to 12 infusions rather than after the traditional 6 infusions. It replicated a previous real-world study by et al., which means that in 2022, intravenous ketamine therapy will need to be customized to the individual patient.”
“It’s really nice to be able to replicate other studies, because it makes the data even more compelling. We are working to discover predictive clinical features.”
The new study has some limitations. The researchers used strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, which may lead to small sample sizes and overestimation of response and remission rates. Data gaps, a common problem in real-world studies of ketamine therapy, also limit our ability to assess why patients drop out. It is unclear whether patients withdrew due to side effects during the induction phase or lack of efficacy during the maintenance phase.
“A few caveats are the lack of safety data, including dosage and side effects. Osmind plans to address this issue in a future study, and this kind of data is also useful for patient safety and for payers who need to fully understand the potential risks of treatment. It’s also important for
“At Osmind, we are creating an EHR designed to capture structured clinical and outcome data on real-world patients. It enables clinicians to practice evidence-generating medicine.”
the study, “Effects of ketamine on symptoms of depression and anxiety in real-world care settings: a retrospective, controlled analysis.by Turi M. Hietames, L. Alison McInnes, Andrew J. Kleis, Matthew J. Worley, Jimmy J. Kian, Lianne M. Williams, Boris D. Heifetz, and Stephen P. Levin.
