Ketamine as a new tool for treatment-resistant depression

Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects and can make its users feel detached from their pain and environment. Nowadays, this medication has been seen as a promising treatment for some cases of major depression.³

Depression being the third leading cause of disability in the world, affects approximately 350 million individuals worldwide.While there is already a growing number of treatments available for this disability, the development of rapid-acting antidepressants to help treatment resistant patients with the more serious symptoms of depression is still un unment need.¹²

In a narrative review conducted by Corriger and Pickering, 2019 exploring Ketamine’s efficacy as an antidepressant, it is concluded that Ketamine provides a fast but temporary solution to patients suffering from serious symptoms of depression such as MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) and BD (Bipolar Disorder)¹  and its  rapid anti-depressant-like effect is a result of mutual regulation of neural circuits and synaptic plasticity.⁵ A reduction in depressive symptoms is observed within several weeks after the start of treatment after conventional antidepressants however some patients can fail to achieve functional recovery despite multimodality treatment interventions.

In 2019, Johnson & Johnson has received the green light from US FDA to sell Spravato, a nasal-spray depression treatment that contains a Ketamine derivative S-Ketamine as an adjunctive therapy for adults who suffer from treatment-resistant depression and are already taking oral antidepressants.⁴ This is ground-breaking news as it is the first time in 30 years to have a new type of depression medication!

SKUs 

Ketamine powder for your compounding needs is available in our catalogue in 3 sizes: 

Formulas

And formulas for Ketamine are available in our formula database:

• FORMULA # 512 REV 1 KETAMINE 2% IN TD LIPO BASE for pain
• FORMULA # 922 REV 1 KETAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE 10 MG TROCHES for depression
• FORMULA # 1191 REV 1 KETAMINE 100 MG ML (10 MG SPRAY) NASAL SPRAY for pain
• and more...

References

1. Corriger, A., & Pickering, G. (2019). Ketamine and depression: a narrative review. Drug Design, Development and Therapy, Volume 13, 3051–3067. https://doi.org/10.2147/dddt.s221437

2. Hashimoto, K. (2019). Rapid‐acting antidepressant ketamine, its metabolites and other candidates: A historical overview and future perspective. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 73(10), 613–627. https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12902

3. Home | DEA. (2019). Retrieved from Dea.gov website: https://www.dea.gov

4. J&J prices ketamine-like depression treatment at $590-$885 for two doses. (2019, March 6). Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-fda-pricing-idUSKCN1QN2AX

5. Peng, F. Z., Fan, J., Ge, T. T., Liu, Q. Q., & Li, B. J. (2020). Rapid anti‐depressant‐like effects of ketamine and other candidates: Molecular and cellular mechanisms. Cell Proliferation, 53(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/cpr.12804