My ENT Offered Me a Spot in a Drug Trial for Ketamine Injections

Good morning. My ENT has offered me a spot in a drug trial involving a drug called ketamine being injected into both ears.

I have had tinnitus for 2 years.

She also recommended anti depressants.

Any thoughts on these items? Thanks very much.

 

Keep away from antidepressants. If you are depressed get counseling, CBT etc and use natural remedies. I have used antidepressants for years... they are not worth the trouble!! And they can make your tinnitus worse.

No idea on the actual ketamine.

 

Ketamine isn't a classic antidepressant. Never heard of it being directly injected in ears, though.

@Brooklyn NY, did you mean IV?

One of the current drugs in clinical trials for tinnitus, OTO-313 works on the same receptor as ketamine so it may be something experimental they are trying. Can you tell us more about this trial?

 

Is this the clinical trial at Columbia?

From what I understand, research to date suggests that ketamine *may* be helpful for tinnitus caused by acute injury, but may be *less* helpful for tinnitus caused by gradual SN hearing loss.

Ketamine may also help raise depressed mood and in higher doses has anesthetic properties.

It's likely "safe". I might try it if I were you.

Only thing: there is an MRI component to this study - probably before/after. So you'll need to be comfortable with the MR environment - some on here complain that it is very loud.

But this is a good phase 2 clinical trial. It might help.

 

Thanks for your thoughts on this topic. I was leery of trying antidepressants due to the side effects, and will avoid going in this direction.

 

Ketamine for tinnitus?

 

I wasn't referring to Ketamine. The poster wrote "She also recommended anti depressants", and it was that I was referring to. I didn't even know Ketamine was considered an antidepressant.

 

Hi, the antidepressants were separate from the drug trial. The ketamine is indeed administered by IV although it may have a similar effect. As was mentioned by MattS, it is for Columbia ENT patients. According to the literature it could help with depression, but it does mention acute injury in particular.

 

Would anyone recommend trying this drug trial? It sounds risky, with a small chance of helping...

 

Wise choice. Apart from the risk of worsening tinnitus, antidepressants really mess up your mental health and are hard to stop using later on. Definitely hold those off as a last resort.

 

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03336398

 

My apologies. I missed that reading it the first time.

 

I would do it.

There is reasonable evidence that Ketamine can help, and good evidence that it's generally safe. Any clinical trial involves risks, but this seems manageable.

 

A relevant question: if the Ketamine does work, but only temporarily, will Columbia ENTs be able to proscribe you more? Will you get specialized longer-term treatment? That would be worth it right there.

If you do decide to do it, please report on your progress/outcome, as much as you are allowed.

 

"the preliminary results with this medication show that it only works for tinnitus that results from acute injury. It does not treat tinnitus resulting from progressive hearing loss."

 

How is it different from AM-101 “Keyzilen”?

 

likely to be safe, unlikely to be specifically helpful

@3ri0w did this without benefit IIRC. i priced it out and decided that at $8000 for the series, if I ever wanted to do this I'd just buy a couple grams of ketamine and inject myself...

 

this is basically a shameless effort to make something patentable by making a "new" molecule , (a mirror isomer in this case I think?) but the big difference is that AM101 is intended to be injected into the ear during the acute phase to deal with ear inflammation; ketamine infusion protocols are trying to rewrite 5ht and other pathways at a brain level... how well either of these things work is a big question mark

 

I've had 4 rounds of Ketamine therapy for the Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome that I have. The pain is reduced by about 75% after those treatments. I go in for one more tomorrow.

The tinnitus remains but at a lower volume and lower frequency than before.

 

Even if it helps the effects would most likely only be temporary.

 

lower frequency?

 

The hertz measurement is lowered. I'll try to do an actual measurement of it later. I am going in for my fifth round today.

Considering that Ketamine is like ice for the nerves, it makes some sense. If the effect is temporary, I'll report back in a month or so. I wasn't going for Ketamine for Tinnitus but for the pain.

 

Did you go through with this treatment @Brooklyn NY?

 

I was offered Ketamine injections. The cost was high and insurance didn't cover them. I didn't know they used them for pain also. I'm thinking they knock out your tinnitus for a short while like Lidocaine. I doubt you have any long term relief.

 

For the record, I have tried lidocaine injections behind the ear with no effect on the tinnitus. I think it's just intravenous lidocaine that suppresses the tinnitus, not localized injection unfortunately.

 

May I ask if this effect delivered lasting benefit?

 

Just wondering if you went ahead with the Ketamine trial and, if so, how it went?

I see the trial is still ongoing so wondering whether it's worth considering.