Ketamine in the treatment of bipolar depression

Bipolar depression is the most prevalent state throughout the life of the bipolar patient, even so, few studies have focused on the treatment of depression in this population. Between the available medications approved for treatment of bipolar depression, ketamine is an option that must be considered. The purpose of this paper was to review the scientific evidence on the efficacy of using ketamine to treat bipolar depression either as an adjuvant or as monotherapy. This review used data collected from clinical trials published on PUBMED between 2010 and 2021. In total, six studies were found. The results show that ketamine appears to be an alternative treatment for bipolar depression if medications considered as first and second line are not effective, although future studies are necessary.