Lee EE, Della Selva MP, Liu A, Himelhoch S. Ketamine as a novel treatment for major depressive disorder and bipolar depression: a systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2015 Mar-Apr;37(2):178-84. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2015.01.003. Epub 2015 Jan 15. PMID: 25698228.
Highlights:
- Quantitative meta-analysis of six randomized placebo-controlled trials conducted in September 2013 of ketamine treatment for patients with major depressive disorder or bipolar depression.
- The results of this meta-analysis signify that ketamine has a significant impact on depressive symptoms in subjects with MDD and BPAD at 1 day and 7 days postinfusion.
- Although these findings are consistent with previous results in suggesting that ketamine treatment is associated with a large and significant antidepressant effect at 24 h postinfusion, the results of this meta-analysis may be: (a) more reliable, as our results used data provided directly from study authors of manuscripts.
Results:
The quantitative meta-analysis showed that ketamine significantly reduced depressive symptoms. The overall effect size at day 1 was large and statistically significant with an overall standardized mean difference of 1.01 (95% confidence interval 0.69-1.34) (P<.001), with the effects sustained at 7 days post infusion. The heterogeneity of the studies was low and not statistically significant, and the funnel plot showed no publication bias.
Conclusions:
The large and statistically significant effect of ketamine on depressive symptoms supports a promising, new and effective pharmacotherapy with rapid onset, high efficacy and good tolerability.
