First large-scale study gives hope for ketamine as a depression therapy

While the development of truly innovative mental health therapies has ground to a halt somewhat, scientific research in the field is abuzz with the potential of ketamine as a treatment for depression, with the University of Oxford announcing positive results of a study last month. While its efficacy has so far been promising, robust evidence has remained thin. However, a new large-scale study has helped add a significant level of clinical credence to the encouraging avenue of treatment.

As part of the study, researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego utilised the FDA Adverse Effect Reporting System (FAERS), a database containing health records of over eight million patients.

The team extracted data on over 41,000 patients who were using ketamine to treat pain symptoms. Utilising mathematical algorithms to identify statistically significant differences in the data, it was found that, across this patient group, depression was half as common in those taking ketamine than those taking any other treatment for the same symptoms.

"Current FDA-approved treatments for depression fail for millions of people because they don't work or don't work fast enough," said senior author Ruben Abagyan, Professor of Pharmacy. "This study extends small-scale clinical evidence that ketamine can be used to alleviate depression, and provides needed solid statistical support for wider clinical applications and possibly larger scale clinical trials."

Pharmacy student and team member Tigran Makunts added: "The approach we used here could be applied to any number of other conditions, and may reveal new and important uses for thousands of already approved drugs, without large investments in additional clinical trials."