Ketamine as anaesthesia for ECT: is there room to improve a gold standard treatment?

One meta-analysis of ketamine anaesthesia for electroconvulsive therapy found no improvement of end-point antidepressant outcomes; another meta-analysis with a broader range of included trials found that ketamine improved both early and late outcomes. If ketamine anaesthesia is useful, researchers may need to look for benefits earlier during the treatment course. Declaration of interest None.