ArticleBMC palliative care2020
A rapid positive influence of S-ketamine on the anxiety of patients in palliative care: a retrospective pilot study.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and safety of ketamine for the treatment of depressive symptoms in palliative care: A systematic review.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2023Pooled it
- The antidepressant effect and safety of non-intranasal esketamine: A systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Psychedelics for the treatment of depression, anxiety, and existential distress in patients with a terminal illness: a systematic review.Psychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Safety and efficacy of low-dose esketamine weakly opioidized anesthesia in elderly patients with lumbar spinal stenosis undergoing surgery: a prospective, double-blind randomized controlled trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2025Trial
- Effect of intravenous different drugs on the prevention of restlessness during recovery period of pediatric laparoscopic surgery: a randomized control trial.Journal of anesthesia · 2025Trial
- Effects of Esketamine on Postoperative Delirium and Postoperative Cognitive Function in Elderly Gastrointestinal Tumor Patients with Preoperative Anxiety.Drug design, development and therapy · 2025Trial
- The Analgesic Effect of Low-Dose S(+)-Ketamine in Knee Joint Replacement: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2025Trial
- Effects of esketamine on postoperative fatigue syndrome in patients after laparoscopic resection of gastric carcinoma: a randomized controlled trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2024Trial
- General anesthesia with S-ketamine improves the early recovery and cognitive function in patients undergoing modified radical mastectomy: a prospective randomized controlled trial.BMC anesthesiology · 2023Trial
- Effects of Esketamine Combined with Ultrasound-Guided Pectoral Nerve Block Type II on the Quality of Early Postoperative Recovery in Patients Undergoing a Modified Radical Mastectomy for Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2022Trial
- Ketamine for Depression in Serious Illness: Evidence, Safety, and Practical Approaches.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2026Review
- Psychedelic therapy and cultural humility.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Ketamine Reduces Avoidance Responses During Re-Exposition to Aversive Stimulus: Comparison Between (Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy improves psychiatric symptoms across multiple dimensions in patients with cancer.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
- Safety and efficacy of esketamine for postoperative analgesia in pediatric patients with hypospadias.Frontiers in surgery · 2023Article
- S-Ketamine Pretreatment Alleviates Anxiety-Like Behaviors and Mechanical Allodynia and Blocks the Pro-inflammatory Response in Striatum and Periaqueductal Gray From a Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Model.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Efficacy of ketamine for comorbid depression and acute or chronic pain: A systematic review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Palliative care provider attitudes toward existential distress and treatment with psychedelic-assisted therapies.BMC palliative care · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients in palliative care need rapid-acting pharmacological options for psychological distress. N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist ketamine is known to have a fast onset of anti-depressant and anxiolytic action. Its S-enantiomer S-ketamine (or esketamine) is an analgesic used as a routine treatment for refractory pain as an intravenous infusion (0.25 mg/kg over 45 min). This study investigates whether S-ketamine pain therapy has a positive impact on psychological distress caused by anxiety and depression in palliative care.
methodsPatient routine data from a palliative care unit of a tertiary care hospital were used in a retrospective analysis after positive ethics approval. Eight patients, who received analgesic S-ketamine treatment, were compared to a control group matched by gender and age. The main analysis was conducted using three-way mixed MANOVA followed by two-way mixed ANOVA. Target variables were the values for anxiety and depression in the state-trait anxiety-depression inventory STADI. The predictor variables were the time of measurement before (T1) and after (T2) S-ketamine application and group membership.
resultsComparison of the S-ketamine group (n = 8; 4 male, 4 female; average age 52 years) with the control group (n = 8; 3 male, 5 female; average age 55 years) revealed a significant multivariate effect on anxiety and depression F(1, 14) = 4.78; p = 0.046; r = 0.50. The univariate comparisons showed a significant reduction of the anxiety scores from T1 to T2 in the S-ketamine group compared to the control group F(1, 14) = 10.14; p = 0.007; r = 0.65. With regard to depression, there was no significant reduction from T1 to T2 in the group comparison F(1, 14) = 1.60; p = 0.23; r = 0.32. No long-lasting effects on pain were found.
conclusionsOur findings show that psychological distress of patients in palliative care may improve after a single administration of S-ketamine, which mainly alleviates anxiety in those patients. Limitations of this study arise from non-randomization, retrospective analysis and low sample size. Therefore, further prospective and ideally randomized studies are necessary.
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