The National Institute of Mental Health Highlights Ketamine for Depression
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) issued a highlight on ketamine for treating depression. The most commonly used antidepressants are largely variations on a theme; they increase the supply within synapses of a class of neurotransmitters believed to play a…
IV Ketamine Shows Promise in Clinical Trial with Depressed Teens
Researchers from the University of Minnesota and The Mayo Clinic found that ketamine caused an average decrease of 42% on the Children’s Depression Rating Scale(CDRS)—the most widely used rating scale in research trials for assessing the severity of depression and…
Yale study found no safety issues with long-term ketamine treatment
Researchers at Yale published a new study titled “Acute and Longer-Term Outcomes Using Ketamine as a Clinical Treatment at the Yale Psychiatric Hospital” in Clinical Psychiatry. In late 2014, Yale began providing ketamine as an off-label therapy on a case-by-case…
CNN Reports ‘Ketamine offers lifeline for suicidal thoughts’
CNN featured a segment on the use of ketamine for treating suicidal ideation–a novel, off-label use for ketamine that is currently being explored in human clinical trials. The segment featured Dr. Sanjay Gupta sharing the story of Alan Ferguson. Mr….
Ketamine alone beats methadone and methadone/ketamine combo for neuropathic pain
Neuropathic pain is notoriously difficult to treat. Patients are often treated as regular chronic pain patients and many resort to opioids to manage extreme levels of pain. Neuropathic pain can originate from infection, metabolic diseases, chemotherapy, trauma and many other…
First study shows ketamine is safe and effective for depression in elderly patients
Australian researchers completed the world’s first randomized control trial (RCT), assessing the efficacy and safety of ketamine as a treatment for depression in elderly patients. In this double-blind, controlled, multiple-crossover study with a 6-month follow-up, 16 participants (≥60 years) with…
IV Ketamine “most important breakthrough in antidepressant treatment in decades”
It’s been more than two years now since the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health wrote about the use of intravenous ketamine for the treatment of mental disorders. He wrote that “ketamine, given intravenously, might be the…
Ketamine is a new, faster option for treating PTSD
PTSD Treatment – Ketamine is a novel treatment for several psychiatric disorders including: Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Depression, Postpartum Depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. It was originally FDA approved for anesthesia but is now frequently…
New study confirms IV ketamine is efficacious for treatment refractory headache
Good news for patients suffering from Chronic Migraine or new daily persistent headache. A retrospective review of 77 patients who underwent administration of intravenous, subanesthetic ketamine was conducted by investigators at Thomas Jefferson University. Their results were just published in…
Evidence that ketamine is efficacious for CRPS continues to grow
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is an extremely painful neuropathic pain condition that is notoriously hard to treat. At present, there are no FDA-approved medications that are indicated for treating CRPS. However, there are numerous medications that are utilized off-label…