Hospital first to offer novel depression treatment
Nightingale Hospital, London, has launched an esketamine nasal spray treatment service and becomes the first and only private hospital in the UK to be providing this treatment.
Esketamine is administered in the form of nasal spray product Spravato and is used in conjunction with an oral antidepressant to treat adults with treatment-resistant depression.
The treatment has been licensed in the UK since 2019 and has been proven to be safe and clinically effective in reducing depressive symptoms.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Christopher Muller-Pollard is the lead on this service. He said: ‘It is really very exciting that we are now able to offer patients this rapid-acting antidepressant with a novel mode of action.
‘Given the large number of people who do not respond to other antidepressants, it is great news that this safe and effective treatment is now available to provide relief for those who have not found it before.’
Nightingale Hospital’s managing director Akthar Hussain said the innovative treatment would be potentially life-changing for patients.