American Journal of Psychiatry
May 21, 2019
Vanina Popova, Ella J. Daly, Madhukar Trivedi et al.
879 citations
Switching to esketamine nasal spray plus a new antidepressant led to a significantly greater reduction in depression severity after 28 days than switching to a new antidepressant alone in adults with treatment-resistant depression. The average improvement on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale was 4 points greater with esketamine (95% CI -7.31 to -0.64). Earlier improvements were also seen. Common side effects included dissociation, nausea, vertigo, dysgeusia, and dizziness, which typically appeared shortly after dosing and resolved within 1.5 hours. Seven percent of esketamine patients discontinued due to adverse events versus 0.9% in the comparator group. The findings support esketamine as a rapidly acting option for this difficult-to-treat population.
JAMA Psychiatry
December 27, 2017
Ella J. Daly, Jaskaran B. Singh, Maggie Fedgchin et al.
708 citations
In adults with treatment-resistant depression, intranasal esketamine at doses of 28 mg, 56 mg, and 84 mg produced a rapid, dose-related reduction in depressive symptoms compared to placebo, as measured by the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale. The improvement appeared to persist for more than two months even when dosing frequency was reduced. Adverse events leading to discontinuation occurred in 5% of esketamine-treated participants during the double-blind phase and in 2% during the open-label phase, with no such events in the placebo group.
American Journal of Psychiatry
April 8, 2016
Jaskaran Singh, Maggie Fedgchin, Ella Daly et al.
530 citations
In adults with treatment-resistant depression, intravenous ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) given two or three times per week produced a substantial and similar reduction in depression scores over 15 days compared to placebo. The twice-weekly ketamine group showed an average 18.4-point drop on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, versus 5.7 points for placebo; the thrice-weekly group showed a 17.7-point drop, versus 3.1 points for placebo. Headache, anxiety, dissociation, nausea, and dizziness were common side effects, but dissociative symptoms were temporary and lessened with repeated doses.