EEG correlates of dissociation during ketamine treatment

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of dissociation during ketamine treatment

  • IRAS ID

    306474

  • Contact name

    Rupert McShane

  • Contact email

    rupert.mcshane@oxfordhealth.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 11 months, 17 days

  • Research summary

    Low dose ketamine is a potent but unlicensed antidepressant. A version of it, esketamine, has been licensed as an antidepressant but is not NICE approved. The Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Ketamine Clinic treats both NHS and self-pay (private) patients and has treated over 340 patients with 3,100 infusions and over 9,000 oral doses. Some patients have been treated regularly for up to 10 years.
    This is a single-site, cohort observational study sponsored by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. We will recruit N=30 patients with treatment-resistant depression who are offered ketamine as part of the Interventional Psychiatry service at Oxford Health, from study approval date until August 2023.

    We wish to explore whether the dissociation that patients with depression experience during ketamine treatment has electroencephalographic (brain electrical activity) correlates and whether these change with repeated use of ketamine. Understanding this may eventually help us to understand the brain mechanisms of ‘dissociation’ – the sense that one’s mind and body are separate.

  • REC name

    East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    22/EM/0226

  • Date of REC Opinion

    14 Oct 2022

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion