Yale Researchers Receive Grant From Michael J. Fox Foundation to Study Use of Ketamine for Depression in Parkinson’s Patients

The Yale University School of Medicine announced recently that 2 researchers from its Department of Psychiatry have been awarded a $2 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to conduct the first clinical trial for the use of ketamine to treat depression in individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Sophie E. Holmes, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology, and Gerard Sanacora, MD, PhD, the university’s Gross Professor of Psychiatry, are the co-principal investigators of the study, which is also part of a new Yale program to bridge its Psychiatry and Neurology departments.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, at least 50% of those diagnosed with PD will experience some form of depression during their illness.

The researchers who have been awarded the grant will compare the efficacy of ketamine, administered intravenously in 6 infusions over a 3-week period, to a placebo in 50 individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s and depression. Using brain imaging, the researchers will also look at the effects of ketamine on synaptic connections and the brain’s functional networks.

Yale Department of Psychiatry researchers previously have discovered that small amounts of anesthetic ketamine provided near immediate relief for patients with treatment-resistant depression; their work in clinical trials paved the way for recent approval by the US Food and Drug Administration of ketamine as a fast-acting antidepressant.

“We need to do better at treating depression in Parkinson’s disease,” Holmes said in a news release. “The findings of this research could change the way that it’s treated, leading to the discovery of fast-acting and effective treatments that, in turn, improve the quality of life for the many individuals with PD that suffer from depression.”