European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Introduction:  Ketamine infusion was known to be effective treatment in treatment resistant depressed patients in subanasthetic dose as shown by multiple studies. Previous studies suggested that repeated infusion having higher response rate than single infusion.With this rationale, we planned a study a study to see efficacy and safety of  repeated infusion in such patients.
Methods and Materials: 
This was a single center, prospective, open-label study . After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria 20 patients were recruited and ketamine was infused @ 0.5mg/kg over 60 min under guidance of anaesthetist.Various scales like MADRS , CGI,SSI,BPRS and CADSS were applied to see efficacy and safety of infusion before and after every infusion and mean scores were compared with appropriate statistics.
Results and Conclusions:  
In our study, 14 patients (70%) showed response among 20 patients, among responders 10 patient (50%) were remitters. Pre and Post infusion difference between mean MADRS, CGI and SSI scores found signicant while difference between mean BPRS and CADSS scores were not significant.  Most of the patient felt self limiting side effect like sedation, dizziness, vertigo, restlessness etc. So ketamine infusion is safer alternative for treatment resistant depression.