ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2022
Holding on or letting go? Patient experiences of control, context, and care in oral esketamine treatment for treatment-resistant depression: A qualitative study.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ketamine-induced altered states of consciousness: a systematic review of implications for therapeutic outcomes in psychiatric practices.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- How Do People Who Undergo Ketamine Treatment for a Psychiatric Problem Subjectively Experience This Intervention? A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Studies.International journal of mental health nursing · 2025Pooled it
- Mapping the phenomenology of intranasal 5-MeO-DMT in psychedelic-naïve healthy adults.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Patient perspectives and experiences with psilocybin treatment for treatment-resistant depression: a qualitative study.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- The helioscope effect: A new framework for evaluating trauma-related memory processing in psychedelic experiences.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Patient-centred education for ketamine and esketamine therapies in mood disorders.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- PAINscape-Exploring patient experiences with ketamine for chronic neuropathic pain: A qualitative study.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2026Article
- Patients' Voices on Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Narrative Review of Qualitative Perspectives.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Patient Experience with Intranasal Esketamine in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Insights from a Multicentric Italian Study (REAL-ESKperience).Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- Mindfulness, music, visual occlusion in ketamine therapy for depression: do they change outcomes? A qualitative and quantitative analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- At-home, telehealth-supported ketamine treatment for depression: Findings from longitudinal, machine learning and symptom network analysis of real-world data.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
- Exploring the impact of music on response to ketamine/esketamine: A scoping review.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Article
- Patient experiences of treatment-resistant depression (TRD): A systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis.PLOS mental health · 2024Article
- Double-Blind Comparison of the Two Hallucinogens Dextromethorphan and Psilocybin: Experience-Dependent and Enduring Psychological Effects in Healthy Volunteers.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Ketamine and its enantiomer esketamine represent promising new treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Esketamine induces acute, transient psychoactive effects. How patients perceive esketamine treatment, and which conditions facilitate optimal outcomes, remains poorly understood. Understanding patient perspectives on these phenomena is important to identify unmet needs, which can be used to improve (es)ketamine treatments. Aims: To explore the perspectives of TRD patients participating in "off label" oral esketamine treatment. Materials and methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 patients (11 women) after a six-week, twice-weekly esketamine treatment program, and subsequently after six months of at-home use. Interviews explored participants' perspectives, expectations, and experiences with esketamine treatment. Audio interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed following an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) framework. Results: Key themes included overwhelming experiences; inadequate preparation; letting go of control; mood states influencing session experiences; presence and emotional support, and supportive settings. Patients' attempts to let go and give into vs. attempts to maintain control over occasionally overwhelming experiences was a central theme. Multiple factors influenced patients' ability to give into the experience and appeared to impact their mood and anxiety about future sessions, including level of preparation and education, physical and emotional support, and setting during the session. Conclusion: Better preparation beforehand, an optimized treatment setting, and emotional and psychological support during (es)ketamine sessions can help patients to "let go" and may lead to better quality of care and outcomes. Recommendations to improve quality of patient care in (es)ketamine treatment are provided, including suggestions for the training of nurses and other support staff.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.