Clinical Trial Reveals Potential Benefits of Ketamine for Depression

A recently published study of Johnson & Johnson's Spravato, a nasal spray containing esketamine, showed that patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) found greater relief from their symptoms using Spravato in combination with traditional antidepressants than those using antidepressants with a nasal spray placebo. After eight weeks, 27% of the Spravato patients were considered in remission from symptoms compared with 17.6% in the control group. Moreover, at the 32 week follow-up, Spravato users had fewer relapses compared with the control.

Spravato was approved by the FDA in 2019 for patients with clinical depression who had not responded to other treatments. It was later expanded to people with acute suicidal thoughts when it was shown to more quickly reduce symptoms than conventional therapies. 

More research is needed to compare Spravato with other less common therapies like the anti-psychotic quetiapine, but study author Allan Young of the Center for Affective Disorders at King’s College London is recommending the spray be considerd a front line therapy for MDD. For more information, head over to Gizmodo.