Ketamine trial for major depression

A $2.1 million grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council announced today will see UNSW Professor Colleen Loo lead Australia’s largest clinical trial of ketamine as a new treatment for major depression.
The trial will enrol 200 patients, who have not responded to existing medications, to compare the effects of ketamine against an active placebo treatment over a four-week period. Trial recruitment is expected to start around April 2016.
Ketamine targets a key signalling chemical in the brain known as glutamate. This contrasts with other antidepressant medications, which alter different brain neurotransmitters such as serotonin and noradrenaline.
Researchers believe this may be why the effects of ketamine appear distinct to those of other antidepressant drugs and is faster acting and results in more powerful effects.
Ketamine research leader Professor Colleen Loo, from UNSW’s School of Psychiatry and the Black Dog Institute, welcomed the grant and said it would allow UNSW and Australia to continue its pioneering research in this area.
“This trial builds on five years of research and will be the largest worldwide trial of this scale that is university-based and government-funded,” Professor Loo said.
Prior studies have shown a single dose of ketamine can reduce depressive symptoms within hours, even in treatment-resistant patients.
“The trial will allow us to examine whether the positive effects of ketamine on an individual’s depression are sustained over a longer period,” she said.
In earlier studies conducted at the Wesley Hospital, Sydney, Professor Loo and the UNSW team tested new approaches for using ketamine to treat depression, including better methods for administering ketamine and the effects of different doses.
“Our results also found that dose levels are very important in determining effectiveness and side effects, and that a more tailored approach to dosing for individual patients is important,” Professor Loo said.
The safety and effects of ketamine will be carefully studied in the upcoming trial along with the potential for ketamine to rapidly remove suicidal thoughts, due to rapid improvements in mood within hours of treatment.
“We will continue to work very closely with clinical pharmacologists during this trial to understand the specific dosage required for each individual and the likely effects it will have,” Professor Loo said.
The UNSW research team will collaborate with The Black Dog Institute, The George Institute and mood disorders experts from around Australia including Sydney, Monash, Deakin, Western Australia and Adelaide universities, along with the University of Otago in New Zealand.
This article was originally published on UNSW Newsroom. Read the original article.