Ketamine depression treatment should be rolled out

[poledriver]

Ketamine depression treatment should be rolled out'

Doctors trialling the use of ketamine to treat depression are calling for the treatment to be rolled out.

Ketamine is licensed to be used as an anaesthetic but has a reputation as an illegal party drug.

Writing in The Lancet Psychiatry, Dr Rupert McShane, who has led a trial in Oxford, since 2011 says ketamine can work on patients with depression "where nothing has helped before".

However, he is calling for a national registry to monitor its use.

Dr McShane says tens of thousands of people who have not responded to other treatment could be helped by the drug.

But he adds there should be a national registry for those who prescribe the treatment to monitor the results and avoid misuse of the Class B substance.

Of the 101 people taking part who had failed to find a successful depression treatment, 42 of them responded to the ketamine.

"The first ketamine infusion literally saved my life," says Angela, a 42-year-old teacher.

"I had felt so desperate I was going to end it all.

"Subsequent ketamine treatment has enabled me to return to my job full-time. I still struggle at times but being able to work again has given me such a boost."

CONT -

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-3950...=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=twitter

 

[cj]

I wonder what kind of doses they areally talking about.

 

[Felonious Monk]

I wonder what kind of doses they areally talking about.

A family member of mine has done it here in America (they have clinics in many major cities now). I forgot what doses she was talking about but I kinda remember like 30-50mg or something. Not K-Hole range, but you certainly have an experience.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I am a huge advocate of NMDAr antagonist pharmacotherapy for treatment resistant mental health conditions.

Thank you for sharing this with us poledriver! X<<<{{{(((intercontinental hugs)))}}}>>>X for you

 

[poledriver]

No worries Toothpastedog, I only just noticed your ket thread now otherwise I would have posted this one in the same thread as yours.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Actually I was genuinely pleased to see two threads on ketamine in DiTM (and just beginning to peak on MXE, hence the (hugs) thing ). I really am a big proponent of this kind of thing (as I am with MDMA for PTSD, etc).

I heard about the article in the Guardian I'd posted through the most recent edition of the International Drug Policy Consortium, Harm Reduction Australia and Youth Rise News Digest (Asia-Pacific) chain email they sent out. I'm always happy to see this ketamine story picked up elsewhere in the world - particularly a place with a much more robust public health approach to drug use/harm reduction culture, such as exists in Oz.

I remember talking with some folks at Yale out here in the states years ago about the clinical trials they were doing there with ketamine. They were examining it's effects on treatment resistant depression and substance use disorder. Really exciting, fascinating stuff. It's certainly been of huge benefit to myself.

 

[poledriver]

Ketamine can help with severe depression

Several research teams around the world have been trialling ketamine for use in chronic and recurring depression.

The party drug ketamine can have powerful beneficial effects on severely depressed patients who have struggled for years to recover, British experts say.

In a study published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, specialists from Oxford University said there is an urgent need for ethical and innovative action by doctors to prescribe the drug under controlled conditions.

"We think patients' treatment should be in specialist centres and formally tracked in national or international registries," said Rupert McShane, a consultant psychiatrist and researcher at Oxford who has led a series of ketamine studies.

Ketamine is a licensed medical drug, widely used as an anaesthetic and to relieve pain. But it is also used as a recreational drug - sometimes known as Special K - and can lead some people into addiction and drug abuse.

Several research teams around the world have been trialling ketamine use in chronic and recurring depression, since many patients with the psychiatric condition fail to respond to currently available antidepressants such as Prozac and Seroxat.

"I have seen ketamine work where nothing has helped before," McShane said at a briefing in London.

The US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is developing an intranasal form of the drug, called esketamine. Its results so far have been promising enough for Food and Drug Administration officials to award esketamine "breakthrough" status to speed its progress through regulatory hurdles.

McShane and his co-researcher Ilina Singh, a psychiatry professor at Oxford University, told the briefing there had been a worrying sharp rise in the past year in the number of private ketamine clinics in the United States.

There are wide variations in the clinical checks before a patient receives treatment, they said, and there is a need for clear guidelines and registries to track how patients respond.

Last month, the American Psychiatric Association issued a consensus statement on ketamine in a bid to guide safe, appropriate prescribing of the drug for severe patients who do not respond to regular antidepressants.

McShane stressed that the ketamine doses used in the Oxford depression treatment trials are given in controlled conditions and are very different from those taken by street or club users.

On the street, users often take several grams a day and can suffer severe bladder problems and impaired brain function. The doses used in medical trials are a fraction of that - around 80 milligrams - and given once a week in a monitored setting.

Singh said ketamine has such great potential to help a small group of very ill patients that it would be wrong not to find a way of allowing them to benefit from it.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/04/06/ketamine-can-help-severe-depression