New study supports ketamine pills for treating severe depression
Depression is one of the big problems of the last decade. According to the National Institute of Statistics, more than two million people in Spain suffer from this disorder. Within this disorder there are a number of patients who develop treatment-resistant depression (DRT). This complication occurs when, after prolonged use of several courses of treatment and the use of adequate pharmacological doses, no improvement is observed. According to research, it is believed that between 30% and 40% of people diagnosed with depression develop it.
The investigation, published this Monday in Natural medicine found that taking ketamine tablets reduced relapses in patients with CRT. It was also noticed that in this way fewer side effects than injection and intranasal use. Problems it can cause include dissociation, hypertension, and tachycardia, which may occur soon after ingestion.
The work, carried out by a team from the University of Otago in New Zealand, assessed the effectiveness of this new formula. His taking tablets This makes it easier to administer than injectable doses because patients can take it at home. In addition, with this method of administration, the drug enters the blood more slowly. In the first phase, they had a total of 231 participants to identify those who responded to treatment. Five days later, 50% of participants showed improvement in depression. The authors wanted to exclude patients who did not respond to ketamine before the double-blind phase to reduce the failure rate observed in other studies.
In the second stage, these 168 people were randomly divided into two groups: one took the drug and the other took a placebo. For three months I took two tablets a week. The researchers noticed that 71% of participants in the second group experienced a relapse of depression after three months. In contrast, among people who took ketamine, only 43% worsened its symptoms. The data showed a “statistically and clinically significant improvement,” according to the text published in the journal. Natural medicine.
As for side effects, scientists they didn’t find any changes According to the data, the dissociation and sedation observed were minimal. At this stage, drug administration was mostly carried out at patients’ homes. The authors acknowledge concerns that this treatment may be misused or abused. For this reason, it is noted that these tablets are “particularly hard and difficult to break.”
These results justify the initiation of a larger phase 3 study to continue studying the effects of ketamine on TRT, says Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford (UK) in a statement to Scientific Media Center (SMC). It would be interesting to dwell on the advantages and risks of increasing dose“Given the ease with which people can take two pills if they don’t get relief from one,” he adds.
Paul Kidwell, a psychiatrist and member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, argues that oral ketamine may cause large differences between patients in absorption and metabolism. “Further research is needed to determine ideal dosage regimen“, he told SMC. The psychiatrist is convinced that this study highlights the “impressive antidepressant effect of ketamine.”
Other treatments
Treatment-resistant depression has traditionally been treated with psychopharmacology. Different types of antidepressants are used first, and then they can be combined with other types of medicines such as antiepileptic drugs, low-dose antipsychotics or lithium and others. There are also neuromodular treatments, including transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The former stimulates nerve cells in the brain, relieving symptoms of depression. The second involves sending small electrical signals to the brain.
It is impossible to know which patients will develop RRT, but certain situations have been identified that increase the risk. Women and older people suffer from it at higher rates and The reasons can be both biological and psychological.. People who suffer from recurring major depressive episodes are also more likely to suffer from it, pharmaceutical company Janssen says on its website. Other conditions associated with STD include substance abuse and eating and sleep disorders. These factors may increase the likelihood that a patient will not benefit from antidepressant treatment.
In Spain, the use of Spravato, a drug made from esketamine, a substance derived from ketamine, was approved in 2022. Used in combination with oral antidepressants and the state system covers this only in very advanced cases. That is, patients who have tried more than three drug addiction treatment strategies and none of them worked.