Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China; Key Laboratory of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Hefei, Anhui, China.
2 papers in the library · 17 citations · publishing 2023-2025
A single dose of 0.25 mg/kg esketamine given during breast cancer surgery did not significantly increase the proportion of women who achieved a 50% reduction in depression scores within three days after surgery. Among 104 women with preoperative depressive symptoms, 27% in the esketamine group reached this threshold versus 13% in the placebo group, a difference that was not statistically significant. However, esketamine did produce significantly lower depression scores on postoperative days one through five, with a mean additional decrease of 2.5 points on the Montgomery-Åsberg scale compared to placebo. No significant effects were seen on anxiety, pain, or adverse events.
A planned trial will test whether a low dose of the anesthetic esketamine, given before and during surgery, reduces depressive symptoms in women with breast cancer who are undergoing radical mastectomy. The study will randomly assign 108 women with mild-to-severe depression to receive either esketamine or a saline placebo. The main outcome is the proportion of patients whose depressive symptoms improve by the third day after surgery. The study also will measure changes in a brain protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor and in resting-state brain connectivity, aiming to uncover how esketamine might work.