Study of IV Ketamine for Emergency Department Treatment of Adolescent Suicidal Ideation
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2024-07-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Approximately 20% of Canadian adolescents experience thoughts of suicide, or suicidal
ideation (SI), and suicide is the second leading cause of death among Canadians aged 15-19
years. The emergency department at CHEO sees approximately four patients per day with SI.
Even though this is a medical emergency, there are no fast-acting treatments available.
Ketamine is a medication that is commonly used to safely sedate children who require painful
procedures in the emergency department. For nearly ten years, intravenous ketamine has also
been shown to rapidly reduce SI in adults. However, ketamine as a treatment for SI has never
been studied in adolescents. The primary study objective is to pilot a clinical trial that
investigates intravenous ketamine to emergently treat SI in adolescents.
If intravenous ketamine can relieve symptoms of SI for youth, this would have tremendous
effects on patients and would dramatically change how physicians treat adolescent mental
health emergencies. If ketamine is effective for several weeks, as it is in adults, it will
help temporize patients until they receive more long-term psychiatric care. At the system
level, it has the potential to reduce emergency visits and lengthy admissions. The
investigators feel that the results of this study will be generalizable to pediatric centres
across Canada and beyond.