Successful treatment for serious depression with suicidal risk in a heart transplant patient.
Revista Colombiana de psiquiatria January 1, 2024 María Del Mar Arango-Posada, Ana Isabel Prada-Escobar, Carolina Marín-Hernández et al.
A 55-year-old man who had received a heart transplant for heart failure of ischemic origin developed depressed mood, anhedonia, and suicidal ideation six months after the transplant, scoring 20/27 on the PHQ-9 depression screening scale. After a week of mirtazapine 30 mg/night left him at high suicide risk, a 24-hour ketamine infusion produced significant mood improvement and disappearance of suicidal ideation within 24 hours. Depression in transplant patients is associated with graft loss, post-transplant mortality, and other negative outcomes such as deep vein thrombosis. Ketamine infusion was an effective and safe option for treating major depression with suicidal risk in this heart transplant patient.