Ketamine Infusion for Social Anxiety Disorder

February 22, 2021 updated by: Yale University
  • Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is common and causes significant impairment.
  • First-line treatments for Social Anxiety Disorder are only partially effective. Many SAD patients experience little or inadequate symptom relief with available treatments.
  • Ketamine is a potent NMDA receptor antagonist. Ketamine represents an agent with a potentially novel mechanism of action for the treatment of anxiety disorders.
  • Ketamine has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of psychiatric disorders closely related to Social Anxiety Disorder including Major Depression, Bipolar Depression and possibly Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Ketamine represents the possibility to provide rapid symptom relief to patients with SAD and may provide the mechanism for future drug development to treat SAD more rapidly and effectively.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Roughly one-third to one-half of patients with generalized SAD do not experience significant clinical benefit from current evidence-based treatment for SAD such as pharmacotherapy with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) or venlafaxine and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Failure of anxiety relief in patients with SAD is a source of substantial morbidity, distress, and decreases in quality of life. Novel pharmacological treatments are needed to improve patient outcomes with SAD.

Converging lines of evidence from neuroimaging and pharmacological studies support the importance of glutamate abnormalities in the pathogenesis of SAD. In a Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) study, an elevated glutamate to creatinine ratio was found in the anterior cingulate cortex of SAD patients when compared to healthy controls. Elevated thalamic glutamine levels have been demonstrated in patients with SAD. Pre-clinical rodent studies have also established a strong link between glutamate regulation and anxiety.

Ketamine is a potent antagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a major type of glutamate receptor in the brain. Ketamine is routinely used for anesthetic induction because of its dissociative properties. However in research studies, ketamine is effective treatment in reducing symptoms in depressive and possibly anxiety disorders. In multiple controlled clinical studies, ketamine has produced a rapid antidepressant effect in unipolar and bipolar depression. Ketamine's anti-depressant effects peak 1-3 days following infusion. Ketamine's antidepressant effect is observed long after ketamine has been metabolized and excreted by the body and after ketamine's sedative and dissociative effects have dissipated.

The results of several clinical studies suggest that ketamine may also have significant anxiolytic effects. Patients with major depressive disorder given a single ketamine infusion have shown strong and significant reductions in comorbid anxiety symptoms. A trial including 11 depressed patients demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A)) following ketamine infusion. This improvement is supported by one of the earlier placebo-controlled trials of ketamine which demonstrated that the psychic anxiety item was one of 4 (out of 21) items on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) demonstrating significant improvement after ketamine infusion.

The investigators goal is to conduct a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study to explore the efficacy and time course of action of intravenous ketamine in the treatment of SAD.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

18

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Connecticut
      • New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06519
        • Connecticut Mental Health Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Adult between the ages of 18 and 65 years
  2. Meet DSM IV criteria for Social Anxiety Disorder by structured clinical interview (SCID) and have a LSAS >60 with or without co-morbid MDD

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Positive pregnancy test
  2. History of substance abuse disorder within the last 6 months or positive urine toxicology on screening (within the previous 6 months).
  3. History of pervasive developmental disorder or psychotic disorder by DSM-IV-TR criteria
  4. Medical comorbidity that significantly increases the risks associated with ketamine infusion (e.g. untreated hypertension, significant cardiovascular disease)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Ketamine infusion
A ketamine infusion was given on day 0 (28) at a dose of 0.5mg/kg over 40 minutes. Assessments were conducted pre-infusion, 3-h post-infusion, and days 1 (1+28), 2 (2+28), 3 (3+28), 5 (5+28), 7 (7+28), 10 (10+28) and 14 (14+28) post-infusion.
Drug: Ketamine
Ketamine (a single 0.5mg/kg intravenously over 40 minutes).
Other Names:
  • Ketalar
Experimental: Saline infusion
A saline infusion was given on day 0 (28) at a dose of 0.5mg/kg over 40 minutes. Assessments were conducted pre-infusion, 3-h post-infusion, and days 1 (1+28), 2 (2+28), 3 (3+28), 5 (5+28), 7 (7+28), 10 (10+28) and 14 (14+28) post-infusion.
Other: Saline
Saline (a single 0.5mg/kg intravenously over 40 minutes).
Other Names:
  • Placebo

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety Symptoms (VAS-anxiety)
Time Frame: Day 1 (1+28)

Instrument that tries to measure anxiety, that is believed to range across a continuum of values and cannot easily be directly measured.We used a straight horizontal line of 100 mm in length. The ends were defined as the extreme limits of the parameter to be measured (anxiety); oriented from the left (no anxiety) to the right (worst anxiety ever felt). The patient marks on the line the point that they feel represents their perception of their current state.The VAS score is determined by measuring in millimeters from the left hand end of the line to the point that the patient marks.

We examined Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for anxiety symptoms at screening, 1 hour prior to infusion, 1, 2 and 3 hours after infusion, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 days following a single ketamine/saline infusion.
Day 1 (1+28)
Liebowitz Social Anxiety Score (LSAS)
Time Frame: Day 1 (1+28)
Clinician-administered scale for the assessment of fear and avoidance found in social phobia (SAD); it has 24 items divided into 2 subscales, 13 for performance anxiety, and 11 for social situations each rated from 0 to 3 (0=none,1=mild,2=moderate,3=definite). The sum scores for Fear and Avoidance results in an overall score (max 144 points). There are 4 clinician subscales: fear of social interaction, fear of performance, avoidance of social interaction and avoidance of performance 0 to 30= SAD is unlikely 30 to 60=SAD is probable 60 to 90=SADis very probable >90= SAD highly probable
Day 1 (1+28)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Yale University

Collaborators

Patterson Trust Awards Program in Clinical Research

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Michael H. Bloch, MD, MS, Yale University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 2, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 27, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

September 27, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 5, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 7, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

March 11, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 18, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 22, 2021

Last Verified

February 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1310012947

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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