{"id":206771,"date":"2023-11-13T07:15:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T12:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206771"},"modified":"2023-11-08T11:20:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T16:20:02","slug":"ketamine-can-rapidly-reduce-symptoms-of-ptsd-and-depression-new-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/11\/ketamine-can-rapidly-reduce-symptoms-of-ptsd-and-depression-new-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Ketamine Can Rapidly Reduce Symptoms of PTSD and Depression, New Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0drug ketamine<\/a>\u00a0can reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and symptoms of depression in patients as early as a day after injection. That is the key finding of my team\u2019s new meta-analysis,\u00a0just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ketamine is an anesthetic that is sometimes used as a substance of abuse but is increasingly being\u00a0explored as a treatment<\/a>\u00a0for a range of mental health conditions.<\/p>\n

We analyzed\u00a0six randomized controlled trials<\/a>\u00a0representing 259 patients with moderate to severe PTSD. In all trials, about half were injected with ketamine. The rest received either salt water or the\u00a0drug midazolam<\/a>, a benzodiazepine like\u00a0Xanax<\/a>\u00a0that is also used as an anesthetic agent.<\/p>\n

Patients receiving ketamine saw their PTSD symptoms reduced by about 25% both at one day and one week after therapy. But if patients received\u00a0repeated injections over four weeks<\/a>, PTSD symptoms declined by only 12%. Reduction of depression symptoms were more modest but still significant.<\/p>\n

In most of these trials, patients only received a single shot; in the other two, they were given an injection at the same dose six or more times over two to four weeks. The benefits after the first injection were similar across studies, but it\u2019s unclear how well additional doses of ketamine over time maintain these benefits.<\/p>\n

Overall, the benefits of even a single ketamine injection occur rapidly, but are modest in magnitude. The best regimen to maintain these benefits by reinjecting ketamine has not been determined.<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/strong><\/p>\n

PTSD, a\u00a0debilitating mental health disorder<\/a>, occurs when past trauma causes flashbacks, nightmares, depressed mood, anxiety and avoidance of activities that could trigger traumatic memories. Patients with PTSD are\u00a0twice as likely to attempt suicide<\/a>\u00a0than the general population.<\/p>\n

About\u00a013 million Americans have PTSD<\/a>\u00a0in a given year, which translates to nearly 5% of the adult population. PTSD is caused by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Many combat veterans have the disorder, as do survivors of physical assault, natural disasters, child abuse and sexual abuse. Those with moderate to severe disease cases lose an average of about three and a half days of work per month due to triggered symptoms or treatment for the illness.<\/p>\n

Trauma-focused psychotherapy<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 techniques that help patients\u00a0recall, process and respond<\/a>\u00a0to traumatic memories \u2013 is the treatment of choice for PTSD, but it\u00a0can take several weeks to see benefits<\/a>, and not all patients respond.<\/p>\n

For these people, antidepressants such as\u00a0paroxetine, sertraline and venlafaxine<\/a>\u00a0are recommended as alternatives, or as an addition to psychotherapy.<\/p>\n

But like psychotherapy, these drugs may not work for a while \u2013 about\u00a0five to eight weeks<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 unlike ketamine, which seems to begin working almost immediately. That said, the reduction in PTSD and depression symptoms over time following ketamine injection is about the same as what the traditional antidepressants provide once they take effect.<\/p>\n

Because some people with severe PTSD may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, time is of the essence; they simply might not be able to wait for traditional options to begin working. Ketamine might be an effective bridge to immediately reduce patients\u2019 symptoms until trauma-focused psychotherapy and other antidepressants can kick in.<\/p>\n

What still isn’t known<\/strong><\/p>\n

The big unknown with using ketamine for PTSD and depressive symptoms is how often the injections are needed. The data simply is not robust enough to determine whether multiple doses maintain the effects better than simply using a single dose.<\/p>\n

Ketamine costs around\u00a0US$800 per injection<\/a>, so knowing how much to administer each treatment and how many injections to give over time is important.<\/p>\n

Importantly, ketamine can be abused. If purchased from\u00a0unlicensed pharmacies or online stores<\/a>, the ketamine product is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It may not have the correct dose, may have expired or might not even have any ketamine in it. Or, it may contain a substitute drug with a dangerous active ingredient, like the\u00a0synthetic street drug LSD<\/a>. Such fake products\u00a0can harm or even kill patients.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Originally published in The Conversation.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The treatment may be especially beneficial for people with severe symptoms who need urgent care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":206772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2460,2231,1864,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1902],"class_list":["post-206771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-health-well-being","category-pharm","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 14:46:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206771"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206848,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206771\/revisions\/206848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206771"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206771"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}