Loading...
Although ketamine has been shown to reduce suicidal ideation acutely, questions remain about these effects' duration and their relationship to ketamine's antidepressant qualities. To address these issues, investigators randomized 80 voluntary psychiatric inpatients with major depression and clinically significant suicidal ideation to receive blinded infusions of subanesthetic ketamine or low-dose midazolam (60% female; 92% white; mean age, 40; mean age at onset of depression, 15).
There was no medication washout except for benzodiazepines. Exclusions included medical instability, current psychosis, drug or alcohol dependence within 6 months, and ketamine abuse history. Mean duration of current episode was about 1 year. Nearly 50% of patients…