Efficacy and safety of ketamine in bipolar depression: A systematic review

The depression is the most prevalent state throughout the life of the bipolar patient. Ketamine has been shown to be an effective and rapid treatment for depression. The objective of the present work is to perform a systematic review on the efficacy and safety of ketamine as treatment of bipolar depression, as well as its different patterns of administration. The search found 10 relevant manuscripts that met the inclusion criteria: one clinical trial, 5 cohort studies, and 4 case reports. Intravenous infusion was used in 60% of the studies. According to data, ketamine seems to be an effective and safe treatment for bipolar depression, although the length of its effect is short. Adverse effects observed generally occurred at the time of infusion, and tended to completely disappear within 1-2h. Therefore, more studies are necessary to explore new patterns of administration, as well as on its safety and adverse effects.