Ketamine Safety and Tolerability in Psychiatric Inpatient Care (KetGD)

Ketamine, a N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist has been used for general anesthesia since the 1970s, however, reports and trials by the end of the twentieth century and onward using subanesthetic doses suggested robust and rapid antidepressant and anti-suicidal effects. Ketamine is available as a 50/50 racemic mixture of enantiomers (S)-ketamine and (R)-ketamine.Ketamine will be infused (slow IV infusions of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) over 40 minutes) twice weekly over a period of 4 weeks) Ketamine will be given in intranasal spray twice weekly over a period of 4 weeks Ketamine will be given orally (solution 2.0mg/kg, 2.5mg/kg) twice weekly over a period of 4 weeks.