Evaluation of the Initial Prescription of Ketamine and Milnacipran in Depression in Patients With a Progressive Disease

KetaPal is a placebo-controlled randomized trial designed to demonstrate the antidepressant action of ketamine in palliative care situations. Half of participants will receive Ketamine and Milnacipran in combination, while the other half will receive a Placebo and Milnacipran in combination.

Topic Depression
Compound Placebo Ketamine
Country France
Visit trial
Status Recruiting
Results Published
Start date 08 September 2016
End date 01 September 2021
Chance of happening 100%
Phase Phase II Phase III
Design Blinded
Type Interventional
Generation First
Participants 80
Sex All
Age 18- 99
Therapy No

Trial Details

Ketamine, a molecule mainly used as an analgesic in palliative care, turns out to be an excellent fast acting antidepressant. By acting as an NMDA receptor antagonist, its mechanism of action is complementary to classical and long acting antidepressants like Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI). In particular, ketamine is able to boost synaptogenesis in only a few hours whereas long-term prescription of SSRI can stimulate neurogenesis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a new therapeutic strategy that could integrate ketamine in the same time than SSRI, to control depression symptoms faster and optimize patient's quality of life complementary to treatments of cancer.

NCT Number NCT02783430

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.

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a frequently used self-rating scale developed to assess psychological distress in non-psychiatric patients.

Data attribution

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