Open AccessIntramuscular ketamine in acute depression: A report on two cases
Author(s) -
Harihar Chilukuri,
Padmavathy Dasari,
Jakka Sriramulu Srinivas
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
indian journal of psychiatry/indian journal of psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1998-3794
pISSN - 0019-5545
DOI - 10.4103/0019-5545.111461
Subject(s) - ketamine , electroconvulsive therapy , depression (economics) , medicine , anesthesia , antidepressant , intramuscular injection , onset of action , psychiatry , economics , macroeconomics , anxiety , electroconvulsive shock
It takes about 2 weeks for the onset of antidepressant action of drugs while electroconvulsive therapy though faster, is a cumbersome procedure requiring an anaesthetist and at least a minor operation theatre. Recent studies have shown that Ketamine, when given to severely depressed patients in the dose of 0.5 mg/kg as a slow intravenous infusion over 40 minutes, brought about acute relief from depression and amelioration of suicidal risk within a few hours. The improvement, however, was transient and lasted for up to a week but could be sustained by further weekly or biweekly injections. As the dose of ketamine administered was found to be safe, it was now tried in the intramuscular route in two severely depressed patients with similar rapid improvement. The cases are reported here which pave way for an easier mode of treating acute depression.