Project details

or


Psychedelics for therapy resistant depression; studies on ketamine and psilocybine.

Keywords:
depression antidepressants

Researchers:
prof. dr. R.A. Schoevers

Nature of the research:
Randomised Controlled Trials, open label pilot studies, Review papers, Subjective experiences, Neuro-imaging, Pharmaco-kinetics, International collaboration.

Fields of study:
psychiatry

Background / introduction
Depression is highly prevalent and will become the top ranking disorder in terms of disease burden. Current treatments are not effective for 20-30% of depressed patients and innovation is urgently needed. recent studies suggest beneficial effects of 'party' or anesthetic drugs such as ketamine and psilocybine. In our department we now run 2 RCT's examining primary and secondary outcomes.
Research question / problem definition
Efficacy, tolerability and mechanism of action of ketamine and psilocybine in patients with Treatment Resistant Depression.
Workplan
Participate in one of these projects; screening and inclusion of patients, performing measurements, writing papers on mechanisms and after study terminarion on primary and secondary outcomes.
References
Schoevers RA et al (2016). Oral ketamine for the treatment of pain and treatment-resistant depression†. Br J Psychiatry. Feb;208(2):108-13. PMID 26834167.

Carhart-Harris RL et al (2016). Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: an open-label feasibility study. Lancet Psychiatry. Jul;3(7):619-27. PubMed PMID: 27210031.

Newport DJ et al (2015) Ketamine and Other NMDA Antagonists: Early Clinical Trials and Possible Mechanisms in Depression. Am J Psychiatry. Oct;172(10):950-66. PubMed PMID: 26423481.
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