Background:One of the shortcomings of the available treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) is the time delay between starting the treatment and achieving an antidepressant response.Objectives:We aimed to determine the effect of Ketamine as a synergistic antidepressant and anesthetic agent on MDD in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).Patients and Methods:Twenty-two patients with MDD received Ketamine and Propofol as anesthetic agents compared with 20 patients as the control group who received Propofol in a double-blind randomized clinical trial. The Hamilton rating scale for depression was used to determine the changes in symptoms severity during ECT and a 2-week follow-up.Results:Both groups showed a reduction in depression severity, but there was no significant difference between the groups in the recovery process (P = 0.92). However, the cognitive performance recovery time in the Ketamine group was lower than that in the control group (P = 0.042).Conclusions:This study could not show the effect of Ketamine on depression recovery in a 2-week follow-up period. Nevertheless, Ketamine may provide a better cognitive performance in patients under ECT.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.