Potential Synergy of Lithium and Ketamine in Treatment of Recurrent Major Depression

Abstract

Combination pharmacotherapy has proven to be effective in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), particularly when medications from different drug classes are combined. Lithium and ketamine, although typically not prescribed as first-line treatments, have been used individually to augment the effects of antidepressants; however, little is known about the efficacy of combined lithium and ketamine therapy in treating MDD. We present a patient diagnosed as having MDD whose biweekly ketamine infusions augmented with lithium resulted in an improvement of depressive symptoms, leading to a successful discharge following 2.5 months of hospitalization, during which the patient failed to show improvement with both electroconvulsive therapy and trials of multiple classes of antidepressants. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2022;52(4):170–172.]