Esketamine Treatment

Esketamine ,a nasal spray helps people with depression that does not get better with treatments also known as treatment resistant depression (TRD). This nasal spray also helps people with depressive disorder who have thoughts of suicide. It works by specifically binding to NMDA receptors in the brain. This helps to fix the connections in the brain that get messed up in depression. Esketamine starts to work fast often in just hours or days.

Who Needs Esketamine Treatment?

Esketamine is used to treat:

• Persons who are not responsive to two or more other antidepressants, who have treatment resistant depression.

• Persons with major depression with imminent suicide ideation.

Usually it is taken along with an antidepressant drug that is given by mouth.

What to Expect 

• Initial Evaluation: Psychiatrist evaluates the mental health history and decides whether esketamine is right for this patient.
• Administration: Esketamine nasal spray must be administered by a healthcare provider in a clinical setting in order to monitor for side effects.
• Sessions: Treatment will begin at least twice a week for the first month and then usually will decrease to once a week, depending on the response to treatment.

• Supervision: Patients will be supervised for 2 hours following the treatment as this can have side effects such as dissociation, dizziness, or high blood pressure.

Potential Outcomes

• Rapid Relief: Many patients notice improvements in depression symptoms in hours to days.

• Maintenance: Esketamine helps to decrease the frequency and severity of depressive episodes with continued treatment.

• Side Effects: Common side effects include dizziness, nausea or dissociation but these tend to go away after a session.

• Continuous therapy and medication management is a key aspect of Long-Term Support to help sustain improvements and to prevent reversion.