OPEN LETTER, COPIED TO ALL CONCERNED WITH THE ECT-KETAMINE STUDY, INCLUDING NATIONAL INSITUTE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH, NATIONAL RESEARCH ETHICS SERVICE, AND PARTICIPATING NHS TRUSTS AND UNIVERSITIES

June 19, 2014

We are a group of nine mental health experts, including four psychiatrists and affiliates of five Universities. We are writing to you (as a funder, an ethics committee or a NHS Trust) to raise concerns about, and recommend suspension and investigation of, the ‘Ketamine augmentation of ECT to improve outcomes in depression’ study.

{Funder Ref Number: EME-10/90/04 REC Ref: 12/NW/0021 EudraCT Number: 2011-005476-41 ISRCTN Ref: ISRCTN14689382 CTA Ref: 23148/0004/001-0001 Ketamine-ECT Study Protocol – Version 4.2 (03.07.2013)}.

When several mental health staff in the Manchester area started to contact some of us, from August 2013, with concerns about this study, we contemplated writing to you all at that stage to immediately pass on those concerns, as…