Ketamine for the multivariate effect of PTSD: Systematic review and meta-analysis
medRxiv Preprint Server June 13, 2021 Rui Du, Kun Niu, Guofang Lu et al. preprint
A meta-analysis of ten trials with 705 patients examined ketamine for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Ketamine did not increase PTSD prevalence (risk ratio 0.86, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.20). For short-duration PTSD (months), ketamine showed a small symptom-scale difference (mean difference 2.45, 95% CI 1.33 to 3.58). For chronic PTSD (years), ketamine reduced symptoms (mean difference −3.66, 95% CI −7.05 to −0.27), with greater benefit when treatment lasted more than one week. The authors recommend avoiding ketamine for short-term PTSD but suggest it as a new therapy for chronic PTSD, noting potential to improve arousal, avoidance, and dissociative symptoms, while calling for more research.