Study of Oral Ketamine Versus Placebo for Treating Depression in Patients Undergoing Treatment for Cancer
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02836288. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
A Randomized, Double Blind, Feasibility Study of Oral Ketamine Versus Placebo for Treating Depression in Patients With Cancer
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
The primary purpose of this study is to see if it is safe to give patients with cancer a low dose of the FDA approved anesthetic drug ketamine at the same time they receive radiation, chemotherapy, and/or surgery for their cancer treatment to treat depression and its effects. Researchers would also like to see if giving ketamine at the same time as cancer treatment is practical and reasonably acceptable to the patient. Depression has many negative consequences for outcomes in those with cancer. It causes delayed treatments, increases in hospital lengths of stay, decreases in treatment adherence, poorer self-care, and decreased quality of life, even at 3 years post treatment. The presence of depression is the number one predictor of incomplete treatment and difficulty with rehabilitation. Therefore, investigators would also like to see if it is feasible to give patients ketamine during their routine cancer treatment treat depression and its negative effects on cancer treatment outcomes, and also help with anxiety, pain, and quality of life. The study will also use a placebo to compare to the good and/or bad effects of ketamine. A placebo is not an active drug and it will be look the same as ketamine, as a liquid to be taken by mouth. Ketamine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a general anesthetic by itself for some diagnostic and surgical procedures or combined with other general anesthetic agents. It has also been shown to reduce cancer pain. Ketamine is considered experimental in this study because it is not approved by the FDA for the treatment of depression.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT02836288
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Early Phase 1
- Enrollment
- 4 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Dec 19, 2016
- Primary completion
- May 28, 2018
- Completion
- May 28, 2018
- Last update posted
- Nov 5, 2018
2016 – 2018
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Los Angeles | California | 90048 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02836288, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Nov 5, 2018 · Synced Sep 2, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02836288 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.