Conditions: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Keywords: OCD
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Enrollment: 15
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
In this study investigators are studying the effects of a drug called ketamine on the symptoms of Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Detailed description:
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric illness that affects up to 2-3% of the population. People with OCD experience anxiety-provoking, intrusive thoughts, known as obsessions, and feel compelled to perform repetitive behaviors, or compulsions. The only medications proven effective for OCD are serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), but even with SRI treatment, most patients continue to experience significant OCD symptoms, impaired functioning, and diminished quality of life. Recent evidence suggest that a different neurotransmitter, glutamate, may contribute to the symptoms in OCD. Medications that target glutamate hold promise for ameliorating symptoms for those patients continuing to suffer from OCD. In this study the investigators are recruiting patients to receive the drug ketamine, which is thought to modulate the neurotransmitter glutamate through the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), in a 2-week placebo controlled study.

Arms:
arm 1: 0.5mg/kg IV ketamine infusion over 40 minutes then IV saline infusion over 40 minutes arm 2: IV saline infusion over 40 minutes then 0.5mg/kg IV ketamine infusion over 40 minutes

Interventions: intervention 1: Ketamine infusion intervention 2: Saline
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 0.5mg/kg IV over 40 minutes intervention 2: saline infusion

Protocol document: