N-methyl-D-aspartate Antagonist (Ketamine) Augmentation of Electroconvulsive Treatment for Severe Major Depression
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2012-11-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), is considered the most effective treatment for severe
treatment resistant major depressive disorder (MDD), but it requires about 3 weeks of
treatments and can cause considerable acute deficits in memory. It would be a major advance
in treatment if ECT could work faster with fewer treatments and result in decrease incidence
of memory problems. Ketamine is an excellent candidate for augmentation of ECT because of its
acute effects on depression, its short half-life, and its safety profile when given at low
doses. Ketamine is given as an infusion and could easily be incorporated into the routine
management of patients undergoing ECT, but has never been evaluated prospectively in this
context.
The investigators propose to assess the efficacy, feasibility, tolerability and safety of
N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist augmentation of ECT using ketamine.