{"id":333950,"date":"2020-07-02T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/ketamine-containing-nasal-spray-approved-in-switzerland\/"},"modified":"2020-07-02T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T00:00:00","slug":"ketamine-containing-nasal-spray-approved-in-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/ketamine-containing-nasal-spray-approved-in-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Ketamine-containing nasal spray approved in Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Following the EU, Switzerland has also recently approved a nasal spray based on the active ingredient ketamine, which is known as a party drug. The preparation can be used as an add-on in case of therapy resistance.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <!--more--> <\/p>\n<p>The drug <sup>Spravato\u00ae<\/sup> (esketamine) is approved in combination with an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) or SNRI (selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) for adults with treatment-resistant major depression [1]. Treatment resistance is defined as a lack of response to at least two different antidepressants [2]. The approval is based on five phase III studies: three short-term studies, one long-term safety study, and one randomized relapse prevention study [2].<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"very-rapid-onset-of-action\">Very rapid onset of action<\/h2>\n<p>The great advantage of esketamine is that it acts comparatively quickly. In pivotal trials, more than 1600 patients over the age of 18 years with treatment-resistant depression received esketamine nasal spray combined with a newly administered oral antidepressant [2]. In the short-term studies, a clinically significant response was measurable in the verum group up to 28 days after baseline.&nbsp;  Response was defined as a reduction in total Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) score of at least 50% from baseline in the induction phase. In the multicenter, randomized, double-blind, active-controlled, long-term relapse prevention trial, esketamine nasal spray combined with an antidepressant reduced the risk of relapse by 70% in patients with stable response compared with the placebo group. In patients in stable remission, the risk of recurrence decreased by 51%. The long-term safety study found that even with up to 52 weeks of therapy, esketamine nasal was generally well tolerated.<\/p>\n<p>The antidepressant effect probably occurs via antagonism at the NMDA receptor. This provides a transient increase in glutamate release that leads to increased stimulation of the AMPA receptor and subsequently increased neurotrophin-induced signal transduction, which may contribute to restored synaptic function in brain regions responsible for mood and emotion regulation [3].<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"blood-pressure-control-recommended\">Blood pressure control recommended<\/h2>\n<p>The nasal spray is a single-use applicator containing a total of 28&nbsp;mg of esketamine divided into two sprays (one spray per nostril). The nasal spray is intended for use by the patient himself\/herself under the supervision of healthcare professionals, according to the respective dosage recommendations. Before using the nasal spray, the patient&#8217;s blood pressure must be measured. If baseline blood pressure is elevated, the risks associated with short-term elevated blood pressure levels must be weighed against the benefits of treatment. The spray must not be used if increased blood pressure or increased intracranial pressure poses a serious risk. Blood pressure should be checked approximately 40 minutes after application of <sup>Spravato\u00ae<\/sup> and again thereafter at clinical discretion [3].<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: Janssen-Cilag International<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Literature:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Mahase E: Esketamine is approved in Europe for treating resistant major depressive disorder. BMJ 2019; 367: l7069.<\/li>\n<li>European Medicines Agency. Esketamine nasal spray Summary of Product Characteristics, www.ema.europa.eu\/en\/medicines<\/li>\n<li>Siebenand S: Esketamine nasal spray approved for depression. Pharmaceutical Journal, Dec. 23, 2019, www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de<\/li>\n<li>Swissmedics: <sup>Spravato\u00ae<\/sup>, nasal spray (esketaminum), www.swissmedic.ch<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>HAUSARZT PRAXIS 2020; 15(4): 27<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the EU, Switzerland has also recently approved a nasal spray based on the active ingredient ketamine, which is known as a party drug. The preparation can be used as&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","cat_1_feature_home_top":false,"cat_2_editor_pick":false,"csco_eyebrow_text":"Majore depression","footnotes":""},"category":[11297,11530,11466,11548,11503],"tags":[24977,23009,24952,24968,24949,24973,23006,24947,24946,24958,23474,24964],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-333950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-internal-medicine","category-market-medicine","category-psychiatry-and-psychotherapy","category-rx-en","category-studies","tag-ampa-receptor-blood-pressure-control","tag-esketamine","tag-ketamine-containing","tag-madrs-en","tag-majore-depression-en","tag-montgomery-asberg-depression-rating-scale-en","tag-nasal-spray","tag-nmda-receptor","tag-snri-en","tag-spravato-en","tag-ssri-en","tag-treatment-resistant","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 06:01:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"wpml_current_locale":"en_US","wpml_translations":{"fr_FR":{"locale":"fr_FR","id":333935,"slug":"un-spray-nasal-contenant-de-la-ketamine-autorise-en-suisse","post_title":"Un spray nasal contenant de la k\u00e9tamine autoris\u00e9 en Suisse","href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/fr\/un-spray-nasal-contenant-de-la-ketamine-autorise-en-suisse\/"},"it_IT":{"locale":"it_IT","id":333934,"slug":"spray-nasale-contenente-ketamina-approvato-in-svizzera","post_title":"Spray nasale contenente ketamina approvato in Svizzera","href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/it\/spray-nasale-contenente-ketamina-approvato-in-svizzera\/"},"pt_PT":{"locale":"pt_PT","id":333976,"slug":"spray-nasal-contendo-cetamina-aprovado-na-suica","post_title":"Spray nasal contendo cetamina aprovado na Su\u00ed\u00e7a","href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/pt-pt\/spray-nasal-contendo-cetamina-aprovado-na-suica\/"},"es_ES":{"locale":"es_ES","id":333984,"slug":"el-aerosol-nasal-con-ketamina-aprobado-en-suiza","post_title":"El aerosol nasal con ketamina, aprobado en Suiza","href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/es\/el-aerosol-nasal-con-ketamina-aprobado-en-suiza\/"}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=333950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333950"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medizinonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=333950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}