Predictive value of heart rate in treatment of major depression with ketamine in two controlled trials

Ketamine has been shown to be effective in treatment of episodes major depressive disorder (MDD). This controlled study aimed analyse the predictive and discriminative power heart rate (HR) variability (HRV) for ketamine MDD. In 51 patients, HR HRV were assessed at baseline before during infusion 24 hours post infusion. Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) was used assess changes symptoms. A 30% or 50% reduction symptoms after within 7 days defined as response. linear mixed model analysis. increased Responders showed a higher whole course investigation, including with medium effect sizes (Cohen’s d = 0.47–0.67). Furthermore, discriminated between responders non-responders, while normalized low high frequencies did not. The findings show value treatment. further underlines importance autonomous nervous system (ANS) its possible malfunctions markers should studied prospective studies. Neurophysiological could improve MDD via optimizing choice treatments.