Citations 34

KETAMINE FOR TREATMENT-RESISTANT UNIPOLAR AND BIPOLAR MAJOR DEPRESSION: CRITICAL REVIEW AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE

Depression and Anxiety | April 10, 2016 | Volume: 33 | Issue: 8 | Pages: 698-710

10.1002/da.22505 | PMID 27062450

Re: “Telepharmacotherapy for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Patients” by Cain and Sharp (J Child Adolesc Psychopharm 2016;26:221–228)

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology | March 30, 2016 | Volume: 26 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 305-305

10.1089/cap.2016.0013 | PMID 27027804

Potential Risks of Poorly Monitored Ketamine Use in Depression Treatment

American Journal of Psychiatry | March 1, 2016 | Volume: 173 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 215-218

10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15081082 | PMID 26926127

Lithium and Valproate Levels Do Not Correlate with Ketamine’s Antidepressant Efficacy in Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Depression

Neural Plasticity | June 7, 2015 | Volume: 2015 | Issue: No issue available | Pages: 1-7

10.1155/2015/858251 | PMID 26137324

Ketamine and lithium both inhibit glycogen synthase kinase 3. In addition, lithium and ketamine have synergistic antidepressant-like effects at individually subeffective doses in rodents. We hypothesized that ketamine’s antidepressant effects would be improved by therapeutic doses of lithium versus valproate and that serum lithium levels would positively correlate with ketamine’s antidepressant efficacy. Thirty-six patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression maintained on therapeutic-dose lithium (n=23, 0.79 ± 0.15 mEq/L) or valproate (n=13, 79.6 ± 12.4 mg/mL) received 0.5 mg/kg ketamine infusion in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial. The primary depression outcome measure—the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)—was assessed before infusion and at numerous postinfusion time points. Both lithium (F1,118= 152.08,p<0.001, andd=2.27) and valproate (F1,128= 20.12,p<0.001, andd=0.79) significantly improved depressive symptoms, but no statistically significant difference was observed between mood stabilizer groups (F1,28= 2.51,p=0.12, andd=0.60). Serum lithium and valproate levels did not correlate with ketamine’s antidepressant efficacy. Although the study was potentially underpowered, our results suggest that lithium may not potentiate ketamine’s antidepressant efficacy in treatment-resistant bipolar depression.