Long-term outcomes of repeated ketamine infusions in patients with unipolar and bipolar depression: A naturalistic follow-up study.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Ketamine was proven to have short-term antidepressant effects. There is a paucity of studies focused on the long-term outcomes of repeated infusions of ketamine. This study aimed to examine the long-term outcomes of repeated ketamine infusions in patients with unipolar and bipolar depression METHODS: One hundred and eight patients with unipolar and bipolar depression completed the repeated treatment phase (administered ketamine three times weekly over a 12-day) and entered a 9-month naturalistic follow-up phase. Assessments were obtained at week 2, month 6, and month 9 after the repeated treatment phase. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Scale and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale were used to assess depressive symptoms and global functional status, respectively.

RESULTS:

Seventy-one (65.7%) of patients completed the 9-month follow-up. On month 9, the response and remission rate were 80.3% and 78.9%, respectively. Among 56 patients who achieved response after the repeated treatment phase, 26 (46.4%) of patients sustained response during 9-month follow-up and their GAF score remained over 70. Sixteen patients relapsed during the 9-month follow-up and 14 (85.7%) of the relapse occurred during the first 2-week follow-up.

LIMITATION:

The major limitation of this study is the open-label design.

CONCLUSIONS:

This small sample study suggested that patients with unipolar and bipolar depression who response to repeated treatment with continued oral antidepressant may be a viable treatment option, and their global functional status improved with a follow-up. Relapse of depression tended to occur during the 2 weeks follow-up.

• Authors: Weicheng Li, Yanling Zhou, Weijian Liu, Chengyu Wang, Xiaofeng Lan, Zhipei Zhang, Fan Zhang, Yanxiang Ye, Haiyan Liu, Kai Wu, Roger S McIntyre, Yuping Ning
• Journal: Journal of affective disorders (J Affect Disord) Vol. 300 Pg. 172-178 (03 01 2022) ISSN: 1573-2517 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 34952122 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Chemical References

• Ketamine

Topics

• Bipolar Disorder (chemically induced, drug therapy)
• Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant (drug therapy)
• Follow-Up Studies
• Humans
• Infusions, Intravenous
• Ketamine