Citation

Harihar C, Dasari P, Srinivas JS. Indian J. Psychiatry 2013; 55(2): 186-188.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/0019-5545.111461

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It takes about 2 weeks for the onset of antidepressant action of drugs while electroconvulsive therapy though faster, is a cumbersome procedure requiring an anaesthetist and at least a minor operation theatre. Recent studies have shown that Ketamine, when given to severely depressed patients in the dose of 0.5 mg/kg as a slow intravenous infusion over 40 minutes, brought about acute relief from depression and amelioration of suicidal risk within a few hours. The improvement, however, was transient and lasted for up to a week but could be sustained by further weekly or biweekly injections. As the dose of ketamine administered was found to be safe, it was now tried in the intramuscular route in two severely depressed patients with similar rapid improvement. The cases are reported here which pave way for an easier mode of treating acute depression.

Language: en

Keywords

adult; human; male; case report; ketamine; suicidality; suicidal ideation; depression; suicide attempt; article; amfebutamone; fluoxetine; electroconvulsive therapy; drug safety; guilt; nausea; Hamilton scale; patient satisfaction; remission; obsessive compulsive disorder; disease duration; drug dose increase; domperidone; antidepressant activity; Acute depression; intramuscular ketamine