New Delhi, Scientists have designed a slow-release tablet form of ketamine that has shown promise in treating treatment-resistant depression patients.
Slow- or extended-release tablets are designed to gradually release an active ingredient over time.
Researchers said the new tablet releases ketamine, an anesthetic, into the bloodstream in small amounts and therefore the patient does not have to experience dissociation to be cured of depression.
The dissociative effect of ketamine, which involves hallucinations in the patient, has been considered an integral part of the treatment of depression.
However, the team of researchers from Australia and New Zealand said it may not be necessary to experience altered perceptions of reality to improve.
"With this tablet form you don't experience that because you only release a small amount into the bloodstream at a time, with a slow, continuous release over days, and you don't experience dissociation at all, and yet people are getting better." . said author Colleen Loo, a clinical psychiatrist and researcher at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, revealed findings from a Phase 2 clinical trial with ketamine (in varying doses), administered as an extended-release tablet.
About 170 patients with treatment-resistant depression were randomly assigned to one of five groups: four received different concentrations of ketamine and one received placebo.
The researchers found that patients who received the strongest dose of ketamine (180 milligrams, orally twice a week) showed the best improvement.
Improvement was measured using patients' Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores, with higher scores meaning more severe symptoms.
Among patients who received 180 mg, their MADRS scores fell 14 points on average from a high of 30, while in the placebo group, patients' MADRS scores fell 8 points on average, the researchers found.
They said the trial, a double-blind trial in which assignment of ketamine or placebo to each of the five groups was hidden from both trial administrators and participants, was the first to measure the effectiveness of a single-release ketamine tablet. Slow to treat depression. .
However, before it becomes an approved clinical treatment, several million dollars are needed for further trials, the authors said.
Slow- or extended-release tablets are designed to gradually release an active ingredient over time.
Researchers said the new tablet releases ketamine, an anesthetic, into the bloodstream in small amounts and therefore the patient does not have to experience dissociation to be cured of depression.
The dissociative effect of ketamine, which involves hallucinations in the patient, has been considered an integral part of the treatment of depression.
However, the team of researchers from Australia and New Zealand said it may not be necessary to experience altered perceptions of reality to improve.
"With this tablet form you don't experience that because you only release a small amount into the bloodstream at a time, with a slow, continuous release over days, and you don't experience dissociation at all, and yet people are getting better." . said author Colleen Loo, a clinical psychiatrist and researcher at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, revealed findings from a Phase 2 clinical trial with ketamine (in varying doses), administered as an extended-release tablet.
About 170 patients with treatment-resistant depression were randomly assigned to one of five groups: four received different concentrations of ketamine and one received placebo.
The researchers found that patients who received the strongest dose of ketamine (180 milligrams, orally twice a week) showed the best improvement.
Improvement was measured using patients' Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores, with higher scores meaning more severe symptoms.
Among patients who received 180 mg, their MADRS scores fell 14 points on average from a high of 30, while in the placebo group, patients' MADRS scores fell 8 points on average, the researchers found.
They said the trial, a double-blind trial in which assignment of ketamine or placebo to each of the five groups was hidden from both trial administrators and participants, was the first to measure the effectiveness of a single-release ketamine tablet. Slow to treat depression. .
However, before it becomes an approved clinical treatment, several million dollars are needed for further trials, the authors said.