Ketamine Treatment Options in Boston, MA

The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of ketamine in blood over time in subjects diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and explore the anti-depressive effects of ketamine delivered by transdermal patch. Read Less

Ketamine has been shown to decrease symptoms of anxious depression quickly. This decrease has been shown to last for up to one month. MRI technology will be used before and after ketamine for patients with depression to examine the extent to which certain brain areas predict ketamine's antidepressant effects. Read Less

This study is looking at the efficacy, durability, safety, and tolerability of multiple single doses of Ketamine vs. active placebo for treating patients with treatment resistant depression who are taking an antidepressant that is not working for them. Read Less

Anxious depression is a particularly difficult-to-treat subtype of depression. Patients with anxious depression do not respond as well to currently available antidepressant medications. Nevertheless, in previous studies, low dose IV ketamine, which rapidly decreases symptoms of depression within hours in many patients with "treatment-resistant" depression, has been associated with superior efficacy in those individuals with anxious compared with non-anxious depression. In order to understand this unique effect more fully, the current protocol is aimed at further delineating biomarkers of ketamine's effects among individuals with treatment-resistant anxious depression compared to those with nonanxious depression. Read Less

Ketamine infusions resulted in an acute reduction in global depression scores and in severity of suicidal ideation. Scopolamine infusions produced also a significant improvement in depression that was sustained over time. We therefore plan to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of open-label repeated intravenous administration of ketamine and scopolamine combined in this population of severely depressed, treatment-resistant patients. The results from this study could lead to the development of new strategies for the treatment of patients with TRD. Read Less

The aim of the study is to assess the effect of short-term infusion of ketamine at analgesic dosage on the immune response, morbidity and mortality among patients suffering from septic shock. We hypothesize that ketamine will modulate the cytokine response to sepsis and reduce morbidity and mortality. Read Less

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), is considered the most effective treatment for severe treatment resistant major depressive disorder (MDD), but it requires about 3 weeks of treatments and can cause considerable acute deficits in memory. It would be a major advance in treatment if ECT could work faster with fewer treatments and result in decrease incidence of memory problems. Ketamine is an excellent candidate for augmentation of ECT because of its acute effects on depression, its short half-life, and its safety profile when given at low doses. Ketamine is given as an infusion and could easily be incorporated into the routine management of patients undergoing ECT, but has never been evaluated prospectively in this context. The investigators propose to assess the efficacy, feasibility, tolerability and safety of N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist augmentation of ECT using ketamine. Read Less

Ketamine infusion has been shown to have rapid antidepressant properties, however the possible use of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression as augmentation has not been investigated. The overall aim of this study is to assess the feasibility, safety and tolerability, efficacy and duration of the effect of intravenous N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist ketamine as augmentation of antidepressants for chronic suicidal ideation in subjects with severe treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This is an open-label study (pilot). Read Less

Ketamine infusions resulted in an acute reduction in global depression scores and in severity of suicidal ideation. The investigators therefore plan to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of repeated intravenous administration of ketamine in severely depressed, treatment resistant patients. The results of the study could lead to development of new strategies for treating depression. Read Less

Every 40 seconds, someone in the world dies by suicide. There is a lack of effective and safe antisuicidal agents for preventing suicide attempts. This leads to the immense worldwide individual, financial, and societal burden of suicide-which is projected to rise in the coming decades-supporting the need for antisuicidal treatments. This treatment gap may be filled through understanding the neurobiology of suicide, which can guide the development of targeted antisuicidal treatments. Though some research has examined the neurobiology of suicidal ideation in the context of depression-implicating the orbital frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and striatum-the underlying pathophysiology and neurobiology of suicidal ideation as a separate construct from depression remains largely unknown. Therefore, the investigators propose to study the neurocircuitry of suicidal thoughts, regardless of whether or not depression is present. Read Less

Patients who are dependent on opioids often have poor pain relief after major surgery. This study tests the hypothesis that adding intravenous ketamine to a postoperative regimen of intravenous opioids for postoperative pain will improve pain relief in this subset of patients. Read Less

To assess the safety and efficacy of PMI-150 (Intranasal Ketamine) as an analgesic for the treatment of breakthrough pain in cancer patients. Read Less