Esketamine and Perioperative Depressive Symptoms

Summary

Perioperative depressive symptoms (PDS) are common in population undergoing surgery, and this would be sharpened especially for complicated, high-risk major surgery. However, None of treatments could resolve this clinical problem during limited perioperative period. The remarkable effects of ketamine on treatment resistant depression have been verified by several clinical trials and the enantiomer S-ketamine (esketamine) showed similar antidepressant efficacy with better safety in recent studies. The efficacy and safety of esketamine administrated intra-operatively for PDS will be verified in this study. Other secondary outcomes such as anxiety, postoperative pain and psychiatric symptoms will also be investigated.

Timeline

Start

2021-02-19

Primary completion

2024-06-23

Completion

2024-11-27

Publications

• Zhou Y, Sun W, Fu Y, Wang A, Zhang H, Tan H, Liu W, Zhang Z, Zhang W, Wang G, Han R. Effect of intraoperative esketamine on moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms in major surgery patients: A randomized clinical trial. Pharmacol Res. 2026 Jul;229:108238. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2026.108238. Epub 2026 May 12.
• Zhou Y, Ma B, Sun W, Wang J, Fu Y, Wang A, Wang G, Han R. Effect of esketamine on perioperative depressive symptoms in major surgery patients (PASSION II): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2022 Apr 26;12(4):e056713. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056713.

Drugs

Indications