Effectiveness and Safety of Ketamine for Unipolar Depression: a Systematic Review.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric disorder with major implications for healthcare system and socioeconomic burden. For chronic and treatment-resistant depression, Ketamine has emerged as a possible treatment option. This systematic review explores the evidence for the effectiveness and tolerability of Ketamine in patients with MDD. This systematic review was conducted following the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) checklist. Eight electronic databases were searched by using search terms: (ketamine) AND (trial OR RCT OR clinical-trial) AND (depressive OR depression OR "depressive-disorder"). After a rigorous screening process against the predetermined eligibility criteria, 35 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Quality assessment of included studies was done by using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for RCTs. Thirty-five RCTs are included in this review article with majority of studies from United States, Iran, and China. Intravenous (IV) Ketamine was effective in 70% (21/30) of the included studies whereas oral and Intranasal (IN) Ketamine were effective in two and three studies, respectively. The majority of studies (6/8) using Ketamine as anesthetic agent during electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) failed to show an improvement compared to the participants receiving ECT and placebo. The most common reported side effects were nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diplopia, drowsiness, dysphoria, hallucinations, and confusion. Ketamine is an effective treatment option for patients with MDD with undesirable effects when administered via oral, IV and IN routes. Ketamine agumentation of ECT requires further exploration in well-designed studies with adequate sample size. The short-lived antidepressant effect of Ketamine is a potential limitation, therefore, further studies administering multiple infusions for acute treatment and maintenance are necessary.

Suicide during Transition of Care: a Review of Targeted Interventions.

The risk of suicide is significant during the transition of care; the highest in the first few weeks after discharge from a healthcare facility. This systematic review summarizes the evidence for interventions providing care during this high-risk period. In January 2019, PubMed and Scopus were systematically searched using the search terms: Suicide AND (Hospital OR Emergency department) AND Discharge. Articles relevant to interventions targeting suicidal behaviors during the transition of care were selected after the title and abstract screening followed by full-text screening. This review article included 40 articles; with a total patient population of 24,568. The interventions included telephone contacts, letters, green cards, postcards, structured visits, and community outreach programs. An improvement in the engagement of patients in outpatient services was observed but the evidence for suicidal behaviors was conflicting. The reviewed interventions were efficacious in linking patients to outpatient services, reducing feelings of social isolation and helping patients in navigating the available community resources. For patients with repetitive suicidal behaviors, psychosocial interventions such as dialectical behavioral therapy can be helpful. Patients should be followed by targeted interventions based on risk categorization of the patients by using evidence-based tools.

Implementation and effectiveness of non-specialist mediated interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, several non-specialist mediated interventions have been developed and tested to address problematic symptoms associated with autism. These can be implemented with a fraction of cost required for specialist delivered interventions. This review represents a robust evidence of clinical effectiveness of these interventions in improving the social, motor and communication deficits among children with autism. METHODS: An electronic search was conducted in eight academic databases from their inception to 31st December 2018. A total of 31 randomized controlled trials were published post-2010 while only 2 were published prior to it. Outcomes pertaining to communication, social skills and caregiver-child relationship were meta-analyzed when reported in > 2 studies. RESULTS: A significant improvement was noted in child distress (SMD = 0.55), communication (SMD = 0.23), expressive language (SMD = 0.47), joint engagement (SMD = 0.63), motor skills (SMD = 0.25), parental distress (SMD = 0.33) parental self-efficacy (SMD = 0.42) parent-child relationship (SMD = 0.67) repetitive behaviors (SMD = 0.33), self-regulation (SMD = 0.54), social skills (SMD = 0.53) symptom severity (SMD = 0.44) and visual reception (SMD = 0.29). CONCLUSION: Non-specialist mediated interventions for autism spectrum disorder demonstrate effectiveness across a range of outcomes for children with autism and their caregivers.