Ketamine - Articles - Page 3 | CARLAT PUBLISHING

Intranasal Esketamine: New Hope for Suicidal Patients?

April 12, 2021

Victoria Hendrick, MD.

Editor in Chief, The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report. Chief, Inpatient Psychiatry, Olive View UCLA Medical Center.

Daniel Carlat, MD. Publisher, The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report. Dr. Hendrick and Dr. Carlat have disclosed no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies pertaining to this educational activity.

Imagine a drug that resolves depression within hours in people at imminent risk of suicide. Esketamine may be such a drug — but is it a miracle cure? Here we look at the data and discuss the pros and cons of this new treatment.

Tips on the Doubts about Ketamine/Esketamine

August 19, 2020

Ketamine and esketamine have been shown to provide rapid relief of suicidality, however, many lingering doubts have been raised about these medicines. In a previous article from The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Nolan Williams, M.D., discusses the potential negative consequences of ketamine/esketamine treatment. Here are some of Dr. Williams’s tips:It might...

Ketamine and Obesity [60 Sec Psych]

May 20, 2020

Obesity is rarely a harbinger of recovery with antidepressant therapy, but at least 3 treatments may be exceptions to that rule. A review of Freeman MP, Hock RS, Papakostas GI, et al. Body Mass Index as a Moderator of Treatment Response to Ketamine for Major Depressive Disorder. J Clin Psychopharmacol.

Psilocybin, Ketamine, and the Spiritual Brain

February 4, 2020

A new antidepressant is under development that could change the field even more than esketamine. And even if it doesn't, its novel effects on the mind reveals something that can help our patients today. This fascinating drug was commonly prescribed by psychiatrists in the 1950's until Richard Nixon tried to...

Getting Uncomfortable with Esketamine

January 13, 2020

Nolan Williams, MD

Nolan Williams, MD

Director of the Brain Stimulation Lab and Interventional Psychiatry Clinical Research Program; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, CA. Dr. Williams has disclosed that he has no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies pertaining to this educational activity.

The FDA approval of esketamine (Spravalto) left some unanswered questions, including suicide, addiction, withdrawal, neurotoxicity, and bladder inflammation. Nolan Williams addresses those risks and looks at where esketamine fits among other options like TMS and ECT. Dr. Williams directs the Interventional Psychiatry Clinical Research Program and Brain Stimulation Lab at Stanford University.

The Secret History of Ketamine

July 8, 2019

In 1985 a Soviet psychiatrist began giving his patients ketamine in hopes to cure their alcoholism. The experiment backfired, but the results tell us something about how ketamine might treat depression. Long buried behind the Iron Curtain, this episode uncovers that early research and traces it back to modern PET-scans,...

Is Ketamine Just Another Opiate?

January 1, 2019

Michael Posternak, MD.

Michael Posternak, MD. Dr. Posternak has disclosed that he has no relevant financial or other interests in any commercial companies pertaining to this educational activity.

Ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects have now been demonstrated in over two dozen double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, but how it works is less clear. For many years, NMDA receptor antagonism was thought responsible, but other NMDA antagonists have not worked well in depression.