Ketamine to treat depression
KETAMINE could be licensed as a medical treatment for depression within 18 months.
Scientists have been surprised by the party drug’s success in clinical trials, which have found it is up to 10 times more effective than current drugs in people suffering from treatment-resistant depression.
It would be the first new drug for 35 years for depression, a notoriously difficult condition to treat, that the Royal College of Psychiatrists estimates afflicts one in five people at some point during their lives.
Doctors backed by the National Institute for Health Research in Oxford have drawn up a three-point strategy for its launch to counter potential controversy and concerns.
It comes months after the Government allowed the prescription of medicinal cannabis, following criticism for denying it to children suffering from illnesses such as epilepsy.
The medical form of ketamine is likely to be licensed in the next year,
said one psychiatrist. Ketamine, which is approved for medicinal and veterinary use as an anaesthetic, has been a popular party drug because of its cheapness and higher purity than cocaine. It has also been implicated in cases of “date rape”.
The medical version to treat depression has been developed by Belgiumbased drugs firm Janssen, part of Johnson & Johnson, in the form of esketamine, one of the pair of mirrorimage molecules in ketamine.
There are three other clinical trials testing ketamine for depression in the UK and it is available at 100 clinics in the US, but Janssen’s drug, administered as a nasal spray twice weekly, is the most advanced.
Final phase three trials on 802 patients showed remission rates of 47 per cent, compared with 4 per cent for current anti-depressant drugs. Evidence is also growing that it can counter suicidal thoughts. Janssen this month submitted an application to the European Medicines Agency. If successful, it could be available in early 2020. Rupert Mcshane, a consultant psychiatrist who has led UK trials, said ketamine and other similar rapid-acting drugs “offered the most exciting development in psychopharmacology for 50 years”.
Preliminary evidence suggested ketamine could also have significant benefits for disorders such as PTSD, general anxiety disorder, social phobia, anorexia nervosa, borderline personality disorder, substance misuse, OCD and suicidal ideation.
Dr Mcshane, an associate professor at Oxford University, said there needed to be a “precautionary approach” to monitor the long-term effects.
Meanwhile, prescription drugs pregabalin and gabapentin, which treat nerve pain, epilepsy and anxiety, are to be reclassified as class C controlled substances, following rising numbers of fatalities linked to the drugs.