Study about ketamine, buprenorphine to treat Suicidality

[abefourth]

Recently came across an article about this on yahoo (article was pulled from the Washington Post):

Surprising drug combo could reshape treatment for suicide risk

Modern psychiatry has long struggled with one brutal fact: the people most at risk of suicide often cannot wait weeks for therapy or antidepressants to work. Now, a new study suggests researchers may ...

www.yahoo.com

A study to be presented Tuesday at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting found that a surprising combination of drugs - a single ketamine infusion followed by low-dose buprenorphine - significantly sustained reductions in suicidal ideation in adults with major depressive disorder.

Due caution and all, "every silver lining has a touch of grey" (thanks, Jerry):

Bertha Madras, a professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School, said that while the findings are intriguing, doctors should be careful not to move too quickly. “With all these promising treatments, short-term things always look very beneficial, and it’s only after a period of time when you have use for a larger population for a longer time that you see the adverse consequences,” Madras said.

Carl Hart, a professor of psychology at Columbia University, similarly warned against overstating the findings. He noted that while the study showed improvement in thoughts of suicide, it did not show differences in depressive symptoms between patients who took the pair of drugs versus the placebo, and that the endpoints were based on questionnaires rather than real-world outcomes.

“This is a signal which is great,” he said, “but now you need to follow it up in people who are really contemplating suicide and see how well it does.”

Anyways:

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involved 50 patients with major depression and active suicidal behavior. All of them received one IV infusion of ketamine and two days later they were randomized to receive either an ultra low dose of buprenorphine or placebo for four weeks. They were assessed weekly.

After treatment ended, researchers observed some rebound in both depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts, Tucciarone said, though patients still remained improved compared with before treatment began. Researchers also did not observe signs of withdrawal symptoms.

Love ya guys. Stay strong.

 

[simplefilter]

I do know someone VERY closely who was struggling with major depressive disorder with ideation, occurring more months than not for 3-5 years on, 6-12 months off since age of 18. They did two rounds of therapy assisted at home ketamine treatment and their depression went into full remission for over three years now.

I heard this person couldn’t quite stress how important the co-administered counseling was. But quite life changing.

A bit off topic, but hear they’re very excited about the fast-track LSD anxiety clinical trials, and I agree as the two disorders are so common together. Initial results look incredibly promising.

 

[washingtonbound]

Recently came across an article about this on yahoo (article was pulled from the Washington Post):

Surprising drug combo could reshape treatment for suicide risk

Modern psychiatry has long struggled with one brutal fact: the people most at risk of suicide often cannot wait weeks for therapy or antidepressants to work. Now, a new study suggests researchers may ...

www.yahoo.com

Due caution and all, "every silver lining has a touch of grey" (thanks, Jerry):



Anyways:



Love ya guys. Stay strong.

There is a new drug on the market called Auvelity which is a combination of wellbutrin and dxm, and dxm is a bit similar to ketamine in it's mechanism of action. Both are technically dissociatives. Some people have said it was a game changer for them and I considered trying it but haven't yet because I am predisposed to mania. It is interesting how they seem to work better than each by itself.