Case report: Maintaining altered states of consciousness over repeated ketamine infusions may be key to facilitate long-lasting antidepressant effects: some initial lessons from a personalized-dosing single-case study.
Front Psychiatry October 25, 2023 Steffen Reissmann, Matthias Hartmann, Andreas Kist et al.
In a single patient with treatment-resistant depression, personalized dosing of ketamine infusions that consistently maintained an altered state of consciousness was associated with sustained antidepressant relief over repeated sessions. The patient received six infusions over three weeks, with doses adjusted to keep the altered state at a moderate-to-strong level. Depressive symptoms dropped by more than 50% after the first infusion and remained low for at least four weeks after the final infusion. The case suggests that maintaining a non-ordinary state of consciousness across infusions may be important for long-lasting antidepressant effects.