Trial reportThe journal of ECT2012
Rapid antidepressant effect of ketamine in the electroconvulsive therapy setting.
Trial report in The journal of ECT, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of ketamine-assisted electroconvulsive therapy in major depressive episode: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of racemic ketamine and esketamine for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Expert opinion on drug safety · 2022Pooled it
- Effectiveness and Safety of Ketamine for Unipolar Depression: a Systematic Review.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2020Pooled it
- The CINP Guidelines on the Definition and Evidence-Based Interventions for Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Disorder.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- A Bayesian framework systematic review and meta-analysis of anesthetic agents effectiveness/tolerability profile in electroconvulsive therapy for major depression.Scientific reports · 2016Pooled it
- Ketamine administration in depressive disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychopharmacology · 2014Pooled it
- Different regimens of intravenous sedatives or hypnotics for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in adult patients with depression.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2014Pooled it
- A Randomized Pilot Study Comparing Ketamine and Methohexital Anesthesia for Electroconvulsive Therapy in Patients With Depression.The journal of ECT · 2017Trial
- Ketamine as the anaesthetic for electroconvulsive therapy: the KANECT randomised controlled trial.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2017Trial
- Low-dose ketamine does not improve the speed of recovery from depression in electroconvulsive therapy: a randomized controlled trial.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999)Trial
- Ketamine Beyond Anaesthesia: Analgesic, Psychiatric, Antitumour, and Immunomodulatory Actions and Their Signalling Mechanisms.Current oncology reports · 2026Review
- Article
- Enduring effects of adolescent ketamine exposure on cocaine- and sucrose-induced reward in male and female C57BL/6 mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Article
- The Efficacy and Safety of Concomitant Psychotropic Medication and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT).CNS drugs · 2020Review
- Effects of ketamine in electroconvulsive therapy for major depressive disorder: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.General psychiatry · 2020Article
- The effect of ketamine versus thiopental sodium on hemodynamic profile and seizure duration during electroconvulsive therapy in patients with major depressive disorder: A randomized cross-over clinical trial.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2020Article
- The Combination of Propofol and Ketamine Does Not Enhance Clinical Responses to Electroconvulsive Therapy in Major Depression-The Results From the KEOpS Study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- Ketamine and depression: a narrative review.Drug design, development and therapy · 2019Review
- A review of ketamine's role in ECT and non-ECT settings.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2018Review
- S -ketamine compared to etomidate during electroconvulsive therapy in major depression.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesStudies now provide strong evidence that the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist ketamine possesses rapidly acting antidepressant properties. This study aimed to determine if a low dose of ketamine could be used to expedite and augment the antidepressant effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments in patients experiencing a severe depressive episode. MATERIALS AND
methodsSubjects with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder referred for ECT treatment of a major depressive episode were randomized to receive thiopental alone or thiopental plus ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) for anesthesia before each ECT session. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) was administered at baseline and at 24 to 72 hours after the first and sixth ECT sessions.
resultsElectroconvulsive therapy exerted a significant antidepressant effect in both groups (F2,24 = 14.35, P < 0.001). However, there was no significant group effect or group-by-time interaction on HDRS scores. In addition, post hoc analyses of the time effect on HDRS showed no significant HDRS reduction after the first ECT session for either group.
conclusionsThe results of this pilot study suggest that ketamine, at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg, given just before ECT, did not enhance the antidepressant effect of ECT. Interestingly, the results further suggest that the coadministration of ketamine with a barbiturate anesthetic and ECT may attenuate the immediate antidepressant effects of the N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.