Ketamine and Nitroprusside for Depression

The purpose of this study is to test the effects of the medication ketamine and the medication called nitroprusside in patients with major depression.

Ketamine has both good and bad effects. Some studies have shown that ketamine improves depression. However, studies have also shown that it causes strange and sometimes unpleasant sensations referred to “psychotic” or “dissociative” symptoms. An example of a psychotic symptom would be hearing or seeing something that in reality is not there.

The study team would like to see if nitroprusside can prevent the reported bad effects of ketamine without blocking the reported good effects. This might make ketamine a better treatment for depression.

Trial Details



Trial Number

Sponsors & Collaborators

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
This company doesn't have a full profile yet, it is linked to a clinical trial.

Measures Used

Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale
A ten-item diagnostic questionnaire used to measure the severity of depressive symptoms in patients with mood disorders.

Clinical-Administered Dissociative Symptoms Scale
The Clinical-Administered Dissociative Symptoms Scale (CADSS) is a scale used to measure dissociative states such as those induced by ketamine.

Data attribution

A large set of the trials in our database are sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov (CTG). We have modified these post to display the information in a more clear format or to correct spelling mistakes. Our database in actively updated and may show a different status (e.g. completed) if we have knowledge of this update (e.g. a published paper on the study) which isn't reflected yet on CTG. If a trial is not sourced from CTG, this is indicated on this page and you can follow the link to the alternative source of information.