Intranasal Ketamine and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Treatment-Refractory Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This case study (2017) presents a patient suffering from OCD that was promisingly treated with intranasal ketamine and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Abstract

No abstract was written for this article. Instead, we provide the brief introduction of this letter addressed to the editor:

“Refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common and vexing clinical problem. Agents that modulate glutamate, including the NMDA antagonist ketamine, have been the focus of recent interest for the treatment of this population, but experience to date has been mixed. Ketamine is a rapid-acting antidepressant that enhances cellular mechanisms associated with neural plasticity in prefrontal circuitry associated with extinction learning. This raises the intriguing possibility that ketamine may potentiate extinction-based psychotherapy for OCD.”

Authors: Thomas Adams, Michael Bloch & Christopher Pittenger