Intravenous ketamine for depression: A clinical discussion reconsidering best practices in acute hypertension management.
Frontiers in psychiatry January 1, 2022 Ryan Yip, Jennifer Swainson, Atul Khullar et al. 13 citations
Ketamine is increasingly used for treatment-resistant depression, but its intravenous administration often causes transient high blood pressure. Current psychiatric guidelines recommend aggressive monitoring and treatment of these hypertensive episodes. This review argues that those guidelines should be updated to align with standard best practices for managing hypertension, distinguishing between hypertensive emergency and asymptomatic hypertensive urgency. Adopting such an updated protocol could make ketamine therapy safer and more accessible for patients with depression.