@article{ref1,
title="A pilot study of ketamine infusion after suicide attempt: new frontiers in treating acute suicidality in a real-world medical setting",
journal="International journal of environmental research and public health",
year="2022",
author="Shivanekar, Sharvari and Gopalan, Priya and Pizon, Anthony and Spotts, Crystal and Cruz, Nicolas and Lightfoot, Michael and Rohac, Rebecca and Baumeister, Andrew and Griffo, Angela and Panny, Benjamin and Kucherer, Shelly and Israel, Alex and Rengasamy, Manivel and Price, Rebecca",
volume="19",
number="21",
pages="e13792-e13792",
abstract="Ketamine, in research settings, rapidly reduces suicidal thoughts 2–24 h after a single infusion in patients with high suicidal ideation. In this study, the authors investigate ketamine’s effects on suicidality in a real-world sample of recent suicide attempters on a tertiary-care Consultation-Liaison (CL) psychiatry service. Using an open-label design, 16 transdiagnostic CL patients were recruited, 18–65 years old, to receive a single dose of intravenous ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) in the acute medical setting. All were psychiatrically hospitalized post-infusion. Baseline suicidality and depression measures were compared to ratings taken at 24 h, 5 days, 12 days, and 1, 3 and 6 months post-infusion using paired t-tests. Across all measures, rapid, statistically significant decreases (p’s < 0.001) were observed with large to very large effect sizes (Cohen’s d’s: 1.7–8.8) at acute timepoints (24 h; 5 days). These gains were uniformly maintained to 6 months post-infusion. Open-label ketamine appeared to rapidly and robustly reduced suicidal symptoms in an ultra-high-risk, heterogeneous, real-world sample. Ketamine infusion may therefore be a safe, feasible, viable method to rapidly reduce suicidality among medically hospitalized patients after a suicide attempt, with potentially enduring benefits. The current pilot findings suggest ketamine could be readily integrated into the settings where high-risk CL patients already receive healthcare, with the potential to become an important and novel tool in the treatment of suicidality.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1661-7827",
doi="10.3390/ijerph192113792",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113792"
}