Patients admitted to UMMC's psychiatry inpatient unit with suicidal thoughts will be given the opportunity to participate in the study. Those patients who consent to participate, after being informed about the study and its risks, will be randomized to receive an IV infusion of either saline or ketamine 0.5 mg/kg. The infusion will be given within 24 hours of arriving on the psychiatry inpatient unit. We will record the dates and times that the patient was admitted to and discharged from the psychiatric inpatient unit. At completion of the study, we will compare the average length of stay, defined as date and time of discharge minus date of time of admission, of the group that received ketamine to the average length of stay of the group that received placebo.
This study will evaluate the effect of ketamine on the treatment of patients hospitalized with suicidal thoughts. Half of the patients will receive one dose of ketamine in the vein. The other half will receive a placebo. Because we think that ketamine will improve depression and suicidal thoughts, we expect that patients who receive ketamine will require less time in the hospital than patients who receive placebo.