Podcast 584:  Ketamine for Depression and Suicidality 

<p><strong>Contributor: Jared Scott, MD</strong></p> <p><strong>Educational Pearls:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Suicide is currently the 10</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">th</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">leading cause of death in the US </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Low quality studies have reported ketamine as a potential promising agent in treating depression and preventing suicidal ideations or thoughts</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Randomized study was performed looking at giving ketamine to depressed patients in the ED to see if they could establish a proof of concept, meaning: would looking at ketamine for treatment of acute depression or suicidality be viable?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18 suicidal patients who required hospitalization for their depression and suicidality were entered in the study. 88% of the group treated with ketamine felt like their symptoms improved for up to 3 days, while only 33% of the placebo group reported an improvement</span></li> </ul> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Domany Y, Shelton RC, McCullumsmith CB.</span> <a href= "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31733088/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Ketamine for acute suicidal ideation. An emergency department intervention: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial.</span></a> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269)</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. 2020;37(3):224-233. doi:10.1002/da.22975.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Summarized by Jackson Roos, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD</span></em></p> <p><br /> <br /></p>