It works faster than the drugs currently in use, saving sufferers decisive weeks in controlling symptoms of depression, especially in the treatment resistant form. It is thanks to this characteristic that a molecule derived from ketamine (Esketamine), approved by the Italian Medicines Agency last April, could represent a turning point in the treatment of depression. This is what the Italian Society of Psychiatry claims, gathered in Genoa for the national congress, in the light of the results of an Italian study dedicated to the drug.
The research, the results of which were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, was coordinated by the G.
D’Annunzio of Chieti and the University of Brescia. It involved 22 other centers scattered throughout Italy where a total of 116 patients were observed who received the new drug in the form of a nasal spray. The results show that, with Esketamine, over 64% of patients achieved significant improvement and, of these, 40% had complete remission of the disease. “The first symptoms already improve within the first 24 hours from a single dose”, stated in a note Massimo di Giannantonio, co-author of the research and co-president of SIP together with Enrico Zanalda. After two months, they add, “complete remission of the disease is achieved in almost half of the patients”.
According to psychiatrists, the new drug “can solve very serious cases of depression of many patients who do not respond to treatment and with suicide attempts behind them. The new molecule anticipates by fifteen days the effectiveness of traditional therapies that take several weeks before give results “, add the experts, who however call for extreme caution:” it is a territorial H-drug for hospital use, that is used only in the territorial clinics of the Departments of Mental Health, to be used under strict medical supervision and reserved for only forms of depression resistant to treatment and at risk of suicide “, conclude di Giannantonio and Zanalda.
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