Why monitoring your response to ketamine treatment matters

Studies have shown that about ¾ of patients with depression are “ketamine responders,” meaning that they have notable improvement in their symptoms with ketamine treatment. In the best case (for 38% of patients!) this is a complete resolution of symptoms. But what if your improvement is less obvious? 

There is great value to having an objective measure of your symptoms throughout your treatment journey. It can be hard for patients, family, and friends to notice improvements or symptom recurrence. Using a validated survey consistently over time is the best way to track your progress and monitor your treatment needs.

Many patients who have received ketamine treatments will require a ‘booster’ dose to keep their symptoms at bay. But each patient is different, so knowing if and when you might benefit from a booster infusion can be hard to predict. Importantly, we want to identify a return of depressive symptoms and manage them quickly, before they become severe and debilitating.

All of these patients need to monitor their symptoms objectively to see their response to treatment!

There are a variety of symptom scales. The best depression screening tool used in clinical studies is the PHQ-9. This is a short, 9 question survey completed directly by the patient to quantify their depressive symptoms. This scale has been used in clinical practice and in scientific studies, and is reliable for detecting features of depression. 

Maverick Medicine has partnered with Osmind, a patient-focused health portal to monitor your progress with ketamine treatment. This allows you to easily complete surveys so that both you and your treatment team can see the results. With this information, we can monitor your response together and decide if continued ketamine treatment is right for you. 

We will assign you PHQ-9 surveys throughout your journey. You will complete a survey before infusions start, and then at regular intervals after treatment. If we see a decrease in your PHQ-9 score with treatment, we know that ketamine infusions are helping. If, over time, your score starts to rise again, this could be a sign that you may benefit from an extra booster infusion.