Studies support use of ketamine for depression

Paul Glue.
Paul Glue.
Several international studies have highlighted the effectiveness of anaesthetic drug ketamine in treating depression, Prof Paul Glue says.

Prof Glue, who heads the University of Otago's department of psychological medicine, was commenting in a recent talk at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists' conference in Dunedin.

Giving an ''Update on Ketamine in Depression'', he said ketamine had been used in anaesthesia but, in recent human medicine in this country, had been used more for pain management.

Six international studies involving placebos had also highlighted the value of ketamine in treating depression.

One recent double-blind study involving 15 Australian patients had been undertaken largely by Prof Colleen Loo, at the University of New South Wales, and he had contributed.

Many of the patients had been experiencing severe depression, which in at least some cases had resisted other drug therapies.

Most patients had reported feeling significantly better a day after taking a small dose.

And one patient had remained well for five months after taking a single dose.

Research into how ketamine worked was also shedding further light on contributing factors in depression and on a key restorative role played by brain-derived neutrophic factor (BDNF), he said.

This protein promotes growth and repair of neurons and has sometimes been termed ''brain fertiliser''.

Prof Glue said part of the brain's volume was reduced in many patients with depression, and ketamine seemed to help stimulate neuronal repair.

Any use of ketamine to treat depression in this country remained ''off label'', and the Southern DHB had ''specific guidances'' in place involving any decision between a doctor and a patient to use it.

A big pharmaceutical company was running overseas trials in the use of ketamine, in nasal spray form, as a treatment for depression.

Such activity could eventually lead to an approach by a drug firm to the New Zealand medical regulatory body, Medsafe, to change the drug's current ''off label'' status, he said.

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement