Ian M Anderson, Andrew Blamire, Tim Branton, Ross Clark, Darragh Downey, Graham Dunn, Andrew Easton, Rebecca Elliott, Clare Elwell, Katherine Hayden, Fiona Holland, Salman Karim, Colleen Loo, Jo Lowe, Rajesh Nair, Timothy Oakley, Antony Prakash, Parveen K Sharma, Stephen R Williams, R Hamish McAllister-Williams
BACKGROUND: The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is limited by concerns about its cognitive adverse effects. Preliminary evidence suggests that administering the glutamate antagonist ketamine with ECT might alleviate cognitive adverse effects and accelerate symptomatic improvement; we tested this in a randomised trial of low-dose ketamine. METHODS: In this multicentre, randomised, parallel-group study in 11 ECT suites serving inpatient and outpatient care settings in seven National Health Service trusts in the North of England, we recruited severely depressed patients, who were diagnosed as having unipolar or bipolar depressive episodes defined as moderate or severe by DSM-IV criteria, aged at least 18 years, and were able and willing to provide written consent to participate in the study...
May 2017: Lancet Psychiatry