Efficacy and safety of repeated esketamine intravenous infusion in the treatment of treatment-resistant depression: A case series

Abstract

Repeated intravenous administration of esketamine may increase and prolong the treatment efficacy of depressive patients. Firstly, the patient received esketamine (0.4 mg/kg intravenous over 40 min) infusion every other day, and totally 6 times infusion. If the patient's symptoms cannot improve, they got another 6 times esketamine injection (one time per day, 0.4 mg/kg intravenous over 40 min). Our study reported that 12 times intravenous esketamine infusion adjunctive with oral antidepressants sustained the efficacy for 6 months at least. These cases provide evidence of the safety and longtime efficacy of repeated intravenous esketamine for the treatment of treatment resistant depression.

Keywords: Esketamine; Major Depressive Disorder; Repeated intravenous.