LEBANON – Living with depression is challenging, and when standard treatments don’t provide relief, it makes the situation even more difficult. Thankfully, there are an increasing number of treatments available to patients with treatment-resistant depression. The Mood Disorders Consultation Clinic at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), a program of Interventional Psychiatry, is now able to offer esketamine nasal spray, also known by its brand name Spravato®, to patients with treatment-resistant depression. This is in addition to other cutting-edge and effective treatments for depression, including transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Esketamine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for adults with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD) or depressive symptoms in MDD associated with suicidal thoughts or actions. It is taken in addition to an oral antidepressant medication and may be helpful to patients who have tried multiple, conventional antidepressants and are still depressed. Esketamine may work faster at reducing depression symptoms than conventional antidepressants. Patients are initially given two treatments a week for four weeks, followed by a tapering period if the first month is successful of one treatment a week for four weeks and a maintenance period of one treatment every week or every other week.

“The prospect of making this treatment available to our treatment-resistant patients is very exciting,” said David R. Eiler, MD, a psychiatrist at DHMC and member of the Mood Disorders Consultation Clinic team. “Depression is a serious disease and presents differently in different people. Like any other disease, no one treatment fits all. Adding esketamine nasal spray to our available treatment options will improve patients’ quality of life, and potentially save lives.”

To learn more about esketamine nasal spray and how to contact the Mood Disorders Consultation Clinic, visit https://www.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/psychiatry/esketamine-nasal-spray-treatment-resistant-depression.

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