STAT October 4, 2023
Nasal esketamine spray is more effective than an extended-release antipsychotic, when both are taken in combination with SSRIs and SNRIs, in patients with depressive episodes that didn’t respond to two or more consecutive treatments, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Research dating back to the early 2000s has shown that ketamine and esketamine — which is derived from ketamine — are effective in cases of so-called treatment-resistant depression, and the nasal spray version of the drug was specifically approved for this indication in 2019.
Yet most of the research so far has compared esketamine to placebo (a recent one compared it to electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT), while this latest head-to-head study — sponsored...
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