Low-dose Ketamine Infusion Among Adolescents With Treatment-resistant Depression
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2026-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
In the past decades, the prevalence of adolescent depression and suicide increased
significantly in Taiwan and worldwide. To date, the suicide mortality is the second mortality
cause in the adolescent and young adult population in Taiwan. Previous studies reported that
up to 40% of adolescents with major depressive disorder did not respond to at least two
traditional antidepressants with the optimal dose and adequate duration. Those patients would
be considered the cases with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), which is related to the
poor prognosis, chronic depressive course, higher suicidal risk, severer cognitive
dysfunction, and greater family burdens. However, much less studies investigated the
treatment strategy for adolescent TRD compared with that for adult TRD. In this decade,
low-dose ketamine infusion has been proved as a rapid-acting antidepressant for adult
patients with TRD. In recent 5 years, the investigators study team finished two randomized,
double-blind, and placebo-control trials to support the rapid antidepressant and
anti-suicidal effect in Taiwanese adult patients with TRD. The investigators published
several SCI studies about the investigators clinical findings and the underlying brain
mechanisms. In the following 4 years, the investigators will conduct a new randomized,
double-blind, and placebo-control trial in the adolescent TRD. It will be the first clinical
trial for ketamine effect in adolescent TRD worldwide. The investigators will enroll 54
adolescents aged between 13 and 19 with TRD in four years. The investigators hypothesize that
low-dose ketamine will be effective and well tolerable for adolescents with TRD.