Benzinga | Sep 30, 2021 02:58PM EDT

New Study Suggests Ketamine Could Work Better Without Additional Antidepressants

Braxia Scientific Corp. (CSE:BRAX) (OTC:BRAXF) released results of a clinical study suggesting that ketamine could be as effective on its own in the treatment of depression as it is in combination with traditional antidepressants.

Braxia is a medical research company with clinics providing ketamine treatment for depression and related disorders. The company uses its own facilities to conduct research into ketamine, a compound largely understudied in mental health indications.

The study, conducted at the Canadian Rapid Treatment Centre of Excellence - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Braxia, involved 220 patients with treatment-resistant depression. The patients received intravenous ketamine infusions alone; the results were then compared to patients who received infusions in addition to oral antidepressants.

Patients who received ketamine alone achieved response and remission rates of 39.1% and 17.4%, respectively. Those receiving ketamine treatment along with antidepressants saw corresponding rates of 21.9% and 6.7%.

"In many circumstances, persons who safely benefited from ketamine treatment were able to discontinue their ineffective conventional treatments and transition entirely to ketamine monotherapy," said CEO Dr. Roger McIntyre.

Dr. Joshua Rosenblat, Braxia's scientific chief medical and scientific officer said that this data is particularly important because it shows that the benefits of ketamine may not be dependent on the co-prescription of other medications.

According to the study, "due to the dearth of high-quality clinical data on the safety and efficacy of ketamine as an antidepressant monotherapy, the majority of clinicians continue to prescribe ketamine to patients with the condition that they remain on a stable dose of one or more antidepressant drugs for the duration of treatment."

Photo by Hiroshi Tsubono on Unsplash.