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Child Study Center Grand Rounds 05.04.21

June 08, 2021

Rapid-acting Treatments for Pediatric Depression and Suicidality: Where are We Now?

ID
6693

Transcript

  • 00:00Welcome everyone to today's grand rounds.
  • 00:02The the one thing that I want to say
  • 00:06is about next week's grand rounds.
  • 00:08Then I'll pass it to Michael to say
  • 00:11about today's very special grand rounds.
  • 00:13So next week I have to say that
  • 00:17it's a particularly meaningful and
  • 00:18special grand rounds to me personally,
  • 00:21and to many people in the
  • 00:23child Study Center in that
  • 00:25we're going to have this second
  • 00:27annual Max Ritvo Alan Slifka.
  • 00:30Grand Rounds and you'll
  • 00:31learn more about them
  • 00:33as the announcement comes out,
  • 00:35but suffice it to say that I think
  • 00:37this will be the first time that we're
  • 00:40going to have something like a play.
  • 00:42I don't know exactly
  • 00:44what you're going to call
  • 00:46it, but it's going to be a very
  • 00:48unique type of grand rounds.
  • 00:51Our presenters Susie rule.
  • 00:52Sarah Ruhl is a acclaimed playwright.
  • 00:55She is on faculty at the
  • 00:57Yell School of Drama, which,
  • 00:59as you probably know,
  • 01:01is the top drama school, probably in
  • 01:04the world. She's
  • 01:05an acclaimed writer, an author,
  • 01:07and she will speak about
  • 01:09something that is very,
  • 01:11very personally meaningful,
  • 01:12as I say. Two, she personally
  • 01:15to me personally to Laura Cardona.
  • 01:17Too many of us who were touched in
  • 01:20many ways by Max Ritvo, so I really
  • 01:23look forward to all of us joining
  • 01:26you then. So
  • 01:27that's next week. But today,
  • 01:29the main event we were fighting
  • 01:31each other Michael Block, and
  • 01:33I say no.
  • 01:34I introduce her. Now you introduce
  • 01:36her now, I mean, but eventually
  • 01:39Michael one and I think that it's only
  • 01:42right because Jennie did the wonderful
  • 01:44presentation introduction of Michael
  • 01:45when he gave his grand rounds sometime.
  • 01:48Last year and now Michael Block
  • 01:52Mentor Supreme will introduce
  • 01:54the great Jenny Dwyer Jenny.
  • 01:56We're delighted you're here, Michael.
  • 01:59Take it away. Pam Unmuted,
  • 02:02I guess I it's really my pleasure to
  • 02:05introduce Jenny Dwyer and I I guess
  • 02:07I'll go with the beginning of the
  • 02:10official boring introduction because
  • 02:12just to prove I can do it and then
  • 02:15I'll talk a little bit about her
  • 02:17as a person and really highlighting
  • 02:20the great thing she's done here.
  • 02:23So Jennifer Dwyer is currently an
  • 02:25assistant professor at the Child
  • 02:27Study Center and in the Department of
  • 02:29Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at Yale.
  • 02:32She completed her MD and pH D in
  • 02:35pharmacology at the University of California,
  • 02:38Irvine,
  • 02:38better known as the Anteaters,
  • 02:41where she studied the development of
  • 02:43the dopamine system in adolescence.
  • 02:45We were then lucky enough to recruit
  • 02:48her to the Sony Integrated program in
  • 02:51Child and adult psychiatry research
  • 02:53where she transitioned to have to
  • 02:56conduct more clinically oriented
  • 02:58research that's really informed
  • 03:00by her expertise in neuroscience.
  • 03:02Former pH D at Irvine she's going to
  • 03:05present on novel research examining
  • 03:07cada mean as a novel therapeutic
  • 03:09for treatment refractory depression
  • 03:12in adolescents,
  • 03:13and she's just starting till
  • 03:15lunch in our one grand looking,
  • 03:18entitled reducing adolescent suicide risk,
  • 03:20safety and efficacy,
  • 03:22and connect home phenotypes of
  • 03:24intravenous Academy that focus on
  • 03:27testing the effects of repeated dose.
  • 03:29Cada mean as a novel therapeutic in
  • 03:32adolescent treatment refractory depression.
  • 03:34And using neuroimaging to explore
  • 03:36predictors of treatment response,
  • 03:37and I guess,
  • 03:38the stuff that I'd really like
  • 03:40to say about her personally,
  • 03:42that I think doesn't come through
  • 03:44in the Tri introduction,
  • 03:45is just that she's really the epitome of
  • 03:48a gifted clinic physician scientist that
  • 03:50we try to develop in the soulmate program.
  • 03:53That if you were gonna have
  • 03:55a mascot for the program,
  • 03:57he would be the mascot.
  • 03:58Either that or a Unicorn and then
  • 04:01hopefully people will get that reference.
  • 04:03And and then I guess the other thing to say.
  • 04:06Is a Andres in introduced
  • 04:08me as a mentor supreme,
  • 04:11but I think when we're talking
  • 04:13about this research,
  • 04:14I think it's really important
  • 04:17to recognize that really.
  • 04:18The idea for this study and this
  • 04:22line of research really came out
  • 04:25of Doctor Dwyer's experience as
  • 04:28a as a resident on the CN Ru.
  • 04:31Seeing the I guess the efficacy is
  • 04:33of cada mean and esketamine in the
  • 04:36studies that were conducted there
  • 04:38and adults and really having the
  • 04:40vision to recognize the important
  • 04:43clinical need in adolescence and
  • 04:44what a great sort of research
  • 04:46program that would develop.
  • 04:48And I think one of my main roles of
  • 04:51of as a mentor was recognizing her
  • 04:54brilliance and and being smart enough
  • 04:56to encourage her on her pursuits
  • 04:59and Ann and really take up what's.
  • 05:02Turned into a wonderful research
  • 05:04program and the other thing
  • 05:05I've learned about doing talks with her
  • 05:08and introducing her is that the more
  • 05:10time I give her to talk, the better,
  • 05:12so I'm delighted to introduce her.
  • 05:15Oh, thank you, Michael.
  • 05:18That ladies and gentlemen,
  • 05:20is as warm and fuzzy as Michael
  • 05:22Bloch gets, and it's wonderful.
  • 05:27So I really appreciate you guys inviting me.
  • 05:30Today I realized as Michael was talking
  • 05:32and naming some of my projects,
  • 05:34I realized that I sort of
  • 05:37like a long title I guess.
  • 05:39So here's one more I'm talking about
  • 05:41rapid acting treatments for pediatric,
  • 05:43pediatric depression and suicidality and
  • 05:45really thinking about where are we now?
  • 05:48So let's get going.
  • 05:51In terms of disclosures,
  • 05:52I don't have any relevant
  • 05:54conflicts of interest to disclose.
  • 05:56I've got my research support listed here.
  • 05:59And then I thought I'd just outline
  • 06:01what we're going to talk about today,
  • 06:03so I'm going to talk a little bit
  • 06:06about depression and suicide.
  • 06:07And adolescence.
  • 06:08I'm going to talk about
  • 06:10interventional psychiatry,
  • 06:10treatment modalities for
  • 06:11depression in adults.
  • 06:12I am going to focus mostly on CADA mean,
  • 06:15but I think since this is such a new,
  • 06:18rapidly evolving subfield within
  • 06:19psychiatry that it was a good idea
  • 06:21just to give a little overview of
  • 06:24what interventional psychiatry
  • 06:25even is referring to,
  • 06:26but will focus on cada mean.
  • 06:28And then we'll talk.
  • 06:29A little bit about pediatric cada mean,
  • 06:31so the work that I've done here
  • 06:33with Michael and Jerry Santa
  • 06:34Cora are single dose randomized
  • 06:36controlled trial in adolescent
  • 06:37treatment resistant depression.
  • 06:38And then I'm going to spend a fair
  • 06:40amount of the time talking about
  • 06:42the gaps in our understanding and
  • 06:44as you'll see there are many.
  • 06:46There is a lot of work to do
  • 06:48and enough work to go around,
  • 06:50so I'm excited to sort of talk that
  • 06:53through with the broader community.
  • 06:55And then I'll talk about a couple
  • 06:57ways that my lab is starting
  • 06:58to try to address those gaps,
  • 07:00and then hopefully there will be a
  • 07:03little bit of time for discussion.
  • 07:05So I'm interested in adolescence.
  • 07:07I've been interested in adolescents
  • 07:09since my PhD work and adolescence.
  • 07:12As this group knows,
  • 07:14is a critical developmental period,
  • 07:16it's the period of transition
  • 07:18between childhood and adulthood,
  • 07:20so conservatively defined between
  • 07:2212 and 18 years in humans.
  • 07:25And there is a unique set of
  • 07:27behaviors that are conserved
  • 07:28actually across mammalian species,
  • 07:31and these are familiar features
  • 07:32to folks that have adolescents
  • 07:35at home or work with adolescents,
  • 07:37and they include increased risk,
  • 07:39taking increased novelty seeking,
  • 07:41and spending more time with their peers.
  • 07:45But adolescence is also a critical time
  • 07:47in terms of psychiatric disorders.
  • 07:50So it's a time of onset for things
  • 07:53like substance use disorders,
  • 07:55and several of the neuro psychiatric
  • 07:58disorders that we see that persist
  • 08:01into adulthood.
  • 08:02And I think that these unique.
  • 08:05Both the strengths and vulnerabilities
  • 08:07are really mediated by changes in
  • 08:10the structural, neurochemical,
  • 08:11and functional organization of the
  • 08:13brain during this time period.
  • 08:17So now I'll focus a little
  • 08:19more on adolescent depression.
  • 08:21And as all of you know,
  • 08:22this is a really significant health problem.
  • 08:25I think that is kind of come out and
  • 08:28smacked us in the face with the pandemic,
  • 08:30even though it was already a
  • 08:32significant problem pre COVID
  • 08:34nearly one in five adolescents will
  • 08:36experience major depressive disorder.
  • 08:38Suicide is now the second leading
  • 08:41cause of death in this age group.
  • 08:44The tabs trial showed us that 40% of
  • 08:47adolescents with depression failed
  • 08:49to respond to initial treatment with
  • 08:51selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
  • 08:54And then that data was built upon in
  • 08:57the tortilla trial and that showed us
  • 09:00that of that SSRI resistant population,
  • 09:03nearly half don't receive relief
  • 09:05after either switching medications
  • 09:07or adding psychotherapy.
  • 09:09And so that tells me that we need
  • 09:12better options for treatment
  • 09:13resistant adolescent depression
  • 09:15and the official guidelines really
  • 09:18sort of end at the TORIA trial,
  • 09:20which finished over a decade
  • 09:22ago at this point.
  • 09:23And so we really need clinical trials
  • 09:27and more more data for this group.
  • 09:30I also wanted to bring up some
  • 09:32sobering facts about suicide on this.
  • 09:34Data is actually a little dated now.
  • 09:36I think this was 2017 data from
  • 09:38the CDC and this was looking
  • 09:41at high schoolers in the US.
  • 09:43She reported that 17% had reported
  • 09:46that they considered attempting
  • 09:48suicide in the last year.
  • 09:5014% had a suicide plan in the prior year,
  • 09:548% reported an actual suicide
  • 09:56attempt in some shape,
  • 09:58way or form,
  • 10:00and then 3% made a suicide attempt
  • 10:04that required medical attention.
  • 10:06The actual death rate at this time for
  • 10:09suicide was 13 per 100,000 among adolescents,
  • 10:12and that comes out to about 5500 per year.
  • 10:15I'm somebody that really needs
  • 10:17tangible things to hang big numbers on,
  • 10:20and so I think about Hampton High School,
  • 10:23which is just down the street from us.
  • 10:26Many of our patients attend school here.
  • 10:28This is 1100 students,
  • 10:30and so this number is the equivalent
  • 10:33of losing 5 handed high schools
  • 10:35to suicide every year.
  • 10:37And it's just a totally unacceptable
  • 10:39fact to me. We have so much work to do.
  • 10:44And we can do better.
  • 10:48So I'll just describe a case to
  • 10:50kind of get your minds in the right
  • 10:53place as we start to think about.
  • 10:55Some of the data here,
  • 10:56so I'm going to talk about Emma.
  • 10:58She was a 13 year old girl
  • 11:00who was depressed with me,
  • 11:01diagnosed with depression
  • 11:02when she was 12 years old.
  • 11:04She tried multiple antidepressant
  • 11:06medications and talk therapies,
  • 11:07but she remained very depressed.
  • 11:09She had four psychiatric hospitilization's
  • 11:11over a single year and one of
  • 11:14them was for over four months.
  • 11:16Her depression and suicidal
  • 11:17ideations and she had made plans
  • 11:20to hang herself with the belts and
  • 11:22her parents were understandably
  • 11:23terrified and were unable to leave her
  • 11:26supervised for any amount of time.
  • 11:29And none of the hospitalizations,
  • 11:31medicines or therapies seem to be working,
  • 11:34and everybody, doctors included,
  • 11:35were starting to feel pretty desperate.
  • 11:37And I bet a lot of you all know
  • 11:42patients or cases like this.
  • 11:44So now I'm going to shift towards
  • 11:47treatment and talk about this idea
  • 11:49of interventional psychiatry.
  • 11:51If we were all in the same room,
  • 11:53I would ask people to raise their hands
  • 11:55on how many people have heard this term.
  • 11:57This was a term that was actually
  • 11:59coined in 2014 by Nolan Williams
  • 12:01and Mark George down at M USC.
  • 12:03And I think part of it was sort of
  • 12:07medical specialty envy a little bit.
  • 12:10So cardiology has interventional
  • 12:12cardiologists,
  • 12:12radiology has interventional radiologists,
  • 12:14and so they coined this term
  • 12:17interventional psychiatry.
  • 12:18And what that encompass is really
  • 12:21neuro modulation techniques,
  • 12:22and I'll show some of those.
  • 12:24Some are old,
  • 12:25some are new and then also
  • 12:27encompassing these rapid acting
  • 12:29pharmacotherapies that typically are
  • 12:31not administered by the oral route,
  • 12:34so require some sort of procedural equipment.
  • 12:37So examples include
  • 12:39electroconvulsive therapy or ECT,
  • 12:40which as you know is an older method,
  • 12:44but can be a very effective treatment.
  • 12:47Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation,
  • 12:49which is a newer treatment that was
  • 12:52sort of inspired by ECT in some ways,
  • 12:55but is an outpatient procedure.
  • 12:58Deep brain stimulation or vagus
  • 13:01nerve stimulation would also
  • 13:03count under this definition.
  • 13:06And then when we're thinking about
  • 13:08the rapid acting pharmaco therapies,
  • 13:10we're talking about things like
  • 13:12Esketamine or cada mean infusion therapy.
  • 13:14And that's kind of what I'll
  • 13:17focus my talk on.
  • 13:18And then I'll also add this new medication,
  • 13:21brexanolone,
  • 13:22which was recently FDA approved
  • 13:24to treat postpartum depression.
  • 13:25So these are the types of treatments that
  • 13:27fall under interventional psychiatry
  • 13:29and multiple institutions are now having
  • 13:32interventional psychiatry fellowships.
  • 13:33Not every place has everything on this list.
  • 13:37But it's sort of a growing
  • 13:40subfield within psychiatry.
  • 13:42So I'm going to focus my talk on cada mean.
  • 13:46So Cada mean is a medication
  • 13:48that's traditionally categorized
  • 13:49as a dissociative anesthetic.
  • 13:51It's a non competitive MDA or
  • 13:53glutamate receptor antagonist.
  • 13:54You might remember it from anesthesia,
  • 13:57rotations in medical school,
  • 13:58so this is given at higher doses
  • 14:01and anesthesia.
  • 14:02So like one all the way up to four and
  • 14:05a half milligrams per kilogram
  • 14:08given quickly over a minute.
  • 14:10And that contrasts with
  • 14:12its use in psychiatry,
  • 14:13which is at much slower and slower doses.
  • 14:16So the prototypical dose being
  • 14:18.5 milligrams per kilogram,
  • 14:19over 40 minutes.
  • 14:22When we think about cada means acute
  • 14:25side effects and safety profile,
  • 14:27these are some of the things
  • 14:29we think about again.
  • 14:30Sort of harkening back to our anesthesia
  • 14:33experience so there can be transient
  • 14:35increases in heart rate and blood pressure.
  • 14:38Those are dose dependent.
  • 14:39It can increase the respiratory rate,
  • 14:41but it really high doses.
  • 14:43It could cause respiratory depression.
  • 14:45It can cause nausha dizziness or diplopia.
  • 14:49And then it can also generate
  • 14:52emergent anxiety dysphoria,
  • 14:54dissociation like symptoms,
  • 14:55sensory distortions,
  • 14:56or derealization,
  • 14:57so has kind of a unique side effect profile.
  • 15:05But the reason that people
  • 15:06are excited about cada mean,
  • 15:08and we're willing to tolerate some of
  • 15:10these side effects was this finding,
  • 15:12you know, way back,
  • 15:13almost 20 years ago now,
  • 15:15showing that ketamin rapidly improves
  • 15:17depressive symptoms in adults.
  • 15:18So this was one of the original
  • 15:20papers coming out of Yale,
  • 15:22and you can see that there is a reduction
  • 15:25in depressive symptoms at 240 minutes,
  • 15:2724 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours.
  • 15:30So when you think about that compared
  • 15:32to traditional antidepressants,
  • 15:33which can take up to 8 weeks to
  • 15:36improve depressive symptoms,
  • 15:37this is a really big deal.
  • 15:40The inset is looking at the side
  • 15:43effect timecourse just to show
  • 15:44that the side effects dissipate
  • 15:46and have a separate time course
  • 15:48compared to the efficacy time course.
  • 15:54People are also excited about cada
  • 15:56mean in adults from this data from Sam
  • 16:00Wilkinson here at Yale showing that Cada
  • 16:03mean is also anti suicidal in adults.
  • 16:06So even after controlling for its
  • 16:08antidepressant effects, there is a
  • 16:11distinct rapid anti suicide effect.
  • 16:14And I think this is a really big
  • 16:17deal for child psychiatrist as we
  • 16:19think about the black box warning.
  • 16:22So this idea that an antidepressant
  • 16:24could simultaneously treat depression
  • 16:26but also increase the risk for
  • 16:28suicidal thinking and so a compound
  • 16:30that's both antidepressant and
  • 16:32distinctly anti suicidal would be a
  • 16:34very helpful thing in our population.
  • 16:36And I don't think it's always a given
  • 16:39that these two effects travel together.
  • 16:44I'll also mention Esketamine,
  • 16:46so thinking back to chemistry class,
  • 16:48cada mean itself as a receiving mixture.
  • 16:51It has a left hand,
  • 16:53the S an A right hand the R and
  • 16:56esketamine is just the left sided
  • 16:59enantiomer of this of cada mean.
  • 17:01This was the compound that was developed
  • 17:04by Janssen and recently FDA approved.
  • 17:06The reason that they chose S cada mean
  • 17:09is that it has a higher affinity for the
  • 17:13MDA receptor compared to our CADA mean.
  • 17:16And they thought that there might
  • 17:19be some potential for a lower
  • 17:21amount of dissociative effects
  • 17:23compared to Racine Academy.
  • 17:25This was a big deal when this
  • 17:28was FDA approved in adults about
  • 17:31probably more than a year ago.
  • 17:33At this point,
  • 17:34it's marketed as bravado and the FDA
  • 17:37indication is for treatment resistant
  • 17:39depression in adults when taken
  • 17:41alongside a standard antidepressant,
  • 17:44and this is an intranasal
  • 17:46delivery versus an Ivy infusion,
  • 17:48and the pediatric studies
  • 17:51for Esketamine are ongoing.
  • 17:53I'll talk briefly about mechanism of action,
  • 17:56so people were sort of excited
  • 17:58about cada mean because we've had
  • 18:00a long line of SSRI's and SNR eyes,
  • 18:02and really focusing on the
  • 18:04serotonin system and its cousins,
  • 18:06and so cademy really has this
  • 18:08distinct mechanism of action.
  • 18:10Highlight to show this cartoon just
  • 18:12to remind people that Cyantific
  • 18:14cartoons are getting a little much.
  • 18:16It's hard to really follow this.
  • 18:18I think for a clinical audience.
  • 18:21And So what are the what are
  • 18:23the main points in this figure?
  • 18:25You know,
  • 18:26the idea is that in depression we
  • 18:28have reduced synaptic plasticity.
  • 18:30You can see this kind of sad
  • 18:32little dendritic spine.
  • 18:33It doesn't have a lot of media,
  • 18:36and if it doesn't have enough
  • 18:38glutamate or receptors and then
  • 18:40you see this nice healthy synapse
  • 18:42on the right hand side.
  • 18:44And the idea is that cada mean
  • 18:47inhibits these inhibitory interneurons
  • 18:49and sort of disinhibits.
  • 18:52The system causes this burst of
  • 18:55glutamate and growth factors and
  • 18:58really promotes synaptic plasticity.
  • 19:01I've summarized that here because
  • 19:03I think it's sort of easier to
  • 19:05think about it in words.
  • 19:07So the bottom line is that cada mean
  • 19:10enhances glutamatergic signaling.
  • 19:11It promotes synaptic plasticity.
  • 19:13The key sites of action are the
  • 19:15prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus.
  • 19:18There's two main hypotheses.
  • 19:19One is the one that I just described in
  • 19:23the busy cartoon that NMD a receptors
  • 19:27on inhibitory interneurons are blocked,
  • 19:30and that basically facilitates
  • 19:32glutamate signaling.
  • 19:33And then there's a second,
  • 19:35although not mutually exclusive,
  • 19:37hypothesis that some of cada
  • 19:39means metabolites so hydroxy,
  • 19:41nor cada mean may sort of bypass
  • 19:44an MDA receptors in tirolian,
  • 19:47directly activate AMPA receptors.
  • 19:49Either way,
  • 19:50both hypotheses are that you
  • 19:52know these compounds are pro,
  • 19:54glutamatergic and pro synaptic plasticity,
  • 19:56inducing.
  • 19:57If you're interested in more stuff like this,
  • 20:00put in a plug for the national
  • 20:03Neuroscience Curriculum initiative
  • 20:05where we have a 10 minute video that
  • 20:08sort of goes into this in a little
  • 20:11more depth called sad synapses.
  • 20:13So check that out.
  • 20:16So thinking about cada mean and
  • 20:18pediatric pharmacology, what are the
  • 20:20things that we need to keep in mind?
  • 20:23So I said at the beginning that
  • 20:24the brain is going through rapid
  • 20:27development during this time,
  • 20:28and the prefrontal cortex is a
  • 20:30place of big action in that regard.
  • 20:33So the very place that we think
  • 20:35Cada mean is working is undergoing
  • 20:37all of these big changes.
  • 20:39So there's synaptic pruning
  • 20:40of glutamatergic synapses.
  • 20:41There's a changing relative
  • 20:43profile of these interneurons,
  • 20:44the very places that were
  • 20:46hypothesising that cada mean.
  • 20:47Working and even changes in the
  • 20:50receptor subunit composition
  • 20:51across some of these key receptors.
  • 20:54So I think it's not a given in this case,
  • 20:57or really in many cases that just
  • 20:59because something works in adults that
  • 21:01it will work in pediatric populations,
  • 21:02or that it even will work in the same way.
  • 21:07But what we do know is that
  • 21:09we've got some preclinical data,
  • 21:11and that suggests that CADA mean
  • 21:13can reverse depressive phenotypes
  • 21:14in adolescent rats.
  • 21:15So we've got that going for us.
  • 21:17And then we also know that Keta mean
  • 21:19has been used safely as an acute
  • 21:21anesthetic in Pediatrics for over 50 years,
  • 21:24so we have enough data to go on.
  • 21:26I think that this is at least
  • 21:28a reasonable thing to test,
  • 21:30and so that's what we did.
  • 21:31This was part of the work I did
  • 21:33is a soulmate resident here.
  • 21:35We call this the kids study.
  • 21:37A cada mean in adolescent depression
  • 21:39study and we asked a simple question
  • 21:41is a single dose of cada mean safe
  • 21:43and effective in adolescents with
  • 21:45treatment resistant depression?
  • 21:47And this was funded by a pilot
  • 21:49award here at Child Study Center
  • 21:51as well as the grant from 8 cap
  • 21:54in the Flash for Research Fund.
  • 21:56In this paper,
  • 21:57just came out in a JP a couple of weeks ago,
  • 22:01so I'll tell you about the folks
  • 22:03that we included in this study,
  • 22:04so we were looking for adolescents.
  • 22:07We were looking for depressed adolescents.
  • 22:10We were looking for significantly
  • 22:12depressed adolescents.
  • 22:13So children's depression rating
  • 22:15scale score of over 40.
  • 22:18We were looking for treatment resistance
  • 22:20and here we define that as having
  • 22:22failed to achieve remission with at
  • 22:24least one prior antidepressant trial.
  • 22:26Although as you'll see,
  • 22:27our sample for the most part had tried many,
  • 22:30many medications by the time they came to us.
  • 22:34And this was a cada mean in
  • 22:37addition to kind of study.
  • 22:38So folks needed to stay stable on
  • 22:40their psychiatric medications for
  • 22:42the month prior to enrollment,
  • 22:43and were allowed to continue
  • 22:45with ongoing psychotherapy.
  • 22:46So it's really cada mean in addition to.
  • 22:49The regimen you're on that's not working.
  • 22:52The folks that we did not
  • 22:54include in this study,
  • 22:56so this was an outpatient study.
  • 22:58We excluded folks that were
  • 23:00inpatient at the time or had
  • 23:02active suicidal ideations that
  • 23:04will require an inpatient stay.
  • 23:06So while the depression criteria
  • 23:08were relatively stringent,
  • 23:09we did not allow for a
  • 23:11large degree of suicidal
  • 23:13ideations in this initial study,
  • 23:15we excluded folks that had a history
  • 23:17of psychotic disorder or manic episode
  • 23:20history of substance dependence
  • 23:22or positive urine toxicology.
  • 23:24Pregnancy or anyone that was unable
  • 23:27to provide written informed consent.
  • 23:29I'll talk a minute about the controls and
  • 23:32blinding so placebo rates are pretty high
  • 23:34in depression trials across the board,
  • 23:36but they're really high in
  • 23:38pediatric depression trials,
  • 23:39and we can talk about the reasons for that.
  • 23:42If you all are interested.
  • 23:44But we thought it was really
  • 23:46important to have a control and
  • 23:48to have a rigorous control,
  • 23:50and so we used midazolam as
  • 23:52what's called an active control.
  • 23:54So mad as Liam is a benzodiazepine,
  • 23:56it has some acute effects that
  • 23:58we think might mimic some of the
  • 24:01acute effects that Ketamin has,
  • 24:03and it has a similar pharmacokinetic profile.
  • 24:07Additional measures we took to
  • 24:08protect the blind included having
  • 24:10separate safety and efficacy raters,
  • 24:12so folks that were there for the
  • 24:15infusion or separate from the folks
  • 24:17that performed the efficacy rating.
  • 24:19So all the ratings were down at
  • 24:22the Child Study Center and all
  • 24:24of the infusions here were done
  • 24:26at the hospital research unit.
  • 24:28This is the study design,
  • 24:30so this was a randomized,
  • 24:32medazzaland controlled crossover trial.
  • 24:34It was a four week study so infusion
  • 24:38days were on day zero and a 14 on those
  • 24:42days are participants got an infusion
  • 24:44of either khetani Norma Dazzle lamb.
  • 24:47These are sort of standard weight based
  • 24:50doses from the adult literature so CATA
  • 24:52beta .5 milligrams per kilogram spread
  • 24:55over 40 minutes and medazzaland at 0.04.
  • 24:585 milligrams per kilogram also
  • 25:01spread over 40 minutes every hour.
  • 25:03We looked at side effect rating scales.
  • 25:06We also collected some blood samples
  • 25:09from these patients to look at cademy
  • 25:12metabolites and potential biomarkers.
  • 25:15And then,
  • 25:15as you might imagine,
  • 25:17we talked with these participants
  • 25:18quite a lot,
  • 25:19so we did reading scales on all of
  • 25:22the day's noted here in a subset.
  • 25:24We actually did a little bit of neuroimaging,
  • 25:27and also did some implicit association tests.
  • 25:32So this is the participant flow through
  • 25:34this study we assessed 26 participants.
  • 25:3719 of those consented for the trial,
  • 25:3917 went on to receive the first infusion,
  • 25:42so one withdrew prior to the first infusion
  • 25:45due to an undisclosed medical condition.
  • 25:47And then one panicked prior
  • 25:49to the first infusion,
  • 25:51right as we were about to hit start
  • 25:53on the pump and decided that he
  • 25:57would prefer not to participate.
  • 25:59Out of those, 1711 were randomized by
  • 26:01the Investigational Drug Service to
  • 26:03receive the sequence of midazolam,
  • 26:05and then cada mean,
  • 26:07and then six were randomized to
  • 26:09the opposite sequence.
  • 26:10Cada mean, and then the dazzle AM.
  • 26:14All of the folks on the left completed
  • 26:16the second infusion and then on the
  • 26:18right you can see one person improved
  • 26:20after they received that first infusion,
  • 26:23an withdrew from the study to go
  • 26:25receive cada mean in the community,
  • 26:27and after we broke the blind,
  • 26:29it was determined that participant
  • 26:31did indeed receive cada mean.
  • 26:34This is describing our sample,
  • 26:35so this was a heavily female
  • 26:37sample which I think is consistent
  • 26:39with the gender difference.
  • 26:41In depressione incidents we
  • 26:42see that emerges after puberty,
  • 26:44the average age was 15 1/2,
  • 26:46but if you check out the histogram
  • 26:48you can see that we had pretty
  • 26:51good representation across the
  • 26:52age range that we were targeting.
  • 26:55About half were local to Connecticut.
  • 26:57If you look at the baseline scores
  • 26:59for folks that use these measures,
  • 27:01these are high scores.
  • 27:03So a CDRS with an average around 63.
  • 27:06That's pretty similar to the baseline
  • 27:09characteristics in the tortilla study,
  • 27:11and a mattress of 33.
  • 27:14The average age of depression
  • 27:16onset was 13 years and the average
  • 27:19duration was 21 months.
  • 27:20So you can see that these are folks that
  • 27:23had been depressed for a really long time.
  • 27:27This is a really chronic,
  • 27:28relatively severe sample and the
  • 27:30average number of failed antidepressant
  • 27:32trials was hovering around 3:00.
  • 27:34So even though our entry criteria
  • 27:36required only one,
  • 27:37most people had failed several.
  • 27:40In further characterizing the sample,
  • 27:42about half had a history of suicide
  • 27:45attempt little more than half had a
  • 27:47history of non suicidal self injury.
  • 27:49And as I mentioned,
  • 27:51this was a study where folks stayed
  • 27:53on their medications and got cada
  • 27:55mean in addition to so this list
  • 27:58is characterizing what kinds
  • 27:59of medicine's people were on.
  • 28:01So unsurprisingly,
  • 28:02many people on an SSRI or SNR I.
  • 28:06About percent with
  • 28:07antipsychotic augmentation.
  • 28:08One person on lithium and then
  • 28:10a couple other mood stabilizer
  • 28:12medications in there as well,
  • 28:15and two participants that were
  • 28:17not taking any medication.
  • 28:20OK, so let's look at the data.
  • 28:23Our primary outcome was the mattress.
  • 28:2524 hours after infusion,
  • 28:27comparing participants after they
  • 28:29received medazzaland versus cada mean.
  • 28:31And as you can see,
  • 28:33depression scores went down significantly
  • 28:35following cada mean treatment.
  • 28:37This is an effect size of about .75,
  • 28:40which is pretty similar to the adult
  • 28:44literature for midazolam controlled studies.
  • 28:47If we dig in a little deeper,
  • 28:49so past this primary outcome,
  • 28:51we can look at the percentage of responders.
  • 28:54So here on the right you can see
  • 28:56that there were eight participants
  • 28:58that responded to cada mean only,
  • 29:00in addition to five responders who had a
  • 29:03response to both cada mean and mad as lamb.
  • 29:06In these studies,
  • 29:07you're considered a responder.
  • 29:09If your depression score.
  • 29:12Decreases by more than 50%
  • 29:14within the first three days,
  • 29:16so you can see significantly
  • 29:18more Academy in responders
  • 29:19than medazzaland responders.
  • 29:21This is another way of looking
  • 29:23at the same data,
  • 29:24so again eight people that
  • 29:26responded to cada mean that did
  • 29:28not respond to midazolam versus
  • 29:30one person that responded to
  • 29:32midazolam and not cada mean.
  • 29:37This is the time course,
  • 29:39so this is looking at the Madras score
  • 29:42overtime all the way out to 14 days,
  • 29:44which is the longest time period that
  • 29:47we examined in this short term efficacy
  • 29:50study and you can see that again you
  • 29:52can see the day one finding here,
  • 29:55but you can see that the groups remain
  • 29:58separated all the way out to 14 days,
  • 30:00so encouraging finding after
  • 30:02a single infusion.
  • 30:05I added some unpublished data here about
  • 30:08a subset of our participants that took
  • 30:11an implicit association task I have
  • 30:13in the title of the talk were talking
  • 30:16about anti suicide responses as well and
  • 30:18as you saw in the inclusion criteria,
  • 30:21we really didn't have a lot
  • 30:24of explicit suicidality,
  • 30:25but we did use implicit association
  • 30:27task to look at both depression
  • 30:30and suicide associated cognitions.
  • 30:32For those of you that aren't
  • 30:34familiar with the 80,
  • 30:35this is a test that measures reaction
  • 30:37time to assess how quickly a
  • 30:40participant can sort words or pictures
  • 30:42that flash in front of the screen.
  • 30:44So pairing words together.
  • 30:45So in this example,
  • 30:47pairing me with happy versus not me and sad,
  • 30:50and the sorting speed reflects how
  • 30:51tightly we associate two concepts.
  • 30:53So if we already really tightly linked
  • 30:55the idea of ourselves with being happy,
  • 30:58people are,
  • 30:59reaction time would be quicker for that
  • 31:01than the association of self with sad.
  • 31:04So quicker sorting indicates
  • 31:06a stronger association.
  • 31:08And this is just a subset again
  • 31:11of our participants.
  • 31:12So sort of a preliminary data kind of figure.
  • 31:15We did four different high 80s and you
  • 31:18can see that there is really little
  • 31:20difference for the self harm and anxiety.
  • 31:23I 80s but we see some nice separation
  • 31:26that just escapes conventional
  • 31:27significance here for both the Depression
  • 31:30I-80 but also for the suicide I-80,
  • 31:32which is sort of an intriguing finding.
  • 31:35You know,
  • 31:36given our questions at the top of the talk.
  • 31:41I'll talk briefly about side effects.
  • 31:43It's nice when things work,
  • 31:45but we want to know that they
  • 31:47work at a tolerable Safeway,
  • 31:49so this is looking at intra
  • 31:51infusion dissociative side effects.
  • 31:52We use the cads.
  • 31:55This figure, an alternate title
  • 31:57would be medazzaland is not a great
  • 31:59control for cada mean studies
  • 32:01'cause you can see that there's a
  • 32:04significant difference between cada
  • 32:05mean and midazolam in terms of side
  • 32:08effects associated side effects.
  • 32:09I think the other important pieces
  • 32:12that these dissipate really quickly
  • 32:14and no one had any persistent
  • 32:17dissociative reactions or states.
  • 32:19I think this is kind of an
  • 32:21interesting slide because it lists
  • 32:22the most prominent intra infusion
  • 32:24side effects for both compounds,
  • 32:26so these are individual items that
  • 32:28are pulled out of the cads scale,
  • 32:30and then I highlighted ones that were
  • 32:33similar between cada mean and midazolam.
  • 32:35So you can see feeling like you're
  • 32:37spaced out is something that people
  • 32:39experience on both feeling disconnected
  • 32:41from your body is also something
  • 32:43that it's experienced in both,
  • 32:45although more in the Academy in Group.
  • 32:47But then you can see some things
  • 32:49are distinctly cada mean.
  • 32:51So, feeling like you're in a dream,
  • 32:53most participants have that experience,
  • 32:55and that's really not an experience
  • 32:57that people have made as a lamb.
  • 33:02This is looking at intra
  • 33:04infusion hemodynamic changes,
  • 33:05so if you remember back at the
  • 33:07beginning we know that ketamin can
  • 33:09raise blood pressure and heart rate.
  • 33:12So we see what we expect here.
  • 33:14So this is looking at blood pressures,
  • 33:17minutes, post infusion so you can
  • 33:19see there's a significant increase in
  • 33:21blood pressure in the CADA mean group,
  • 33:23but that returns to normal.
  • 33:25We see a similar finding here
  • 33:27with heart rate for participants
  • 33:29out of our 17 had blood pressure
  • 33:31that met criteria for stage two
  • 33:34hypertension which is 140 / 90.
  • 33:36But none persisted past the
  • 33:38end of the infusion,
  • 33:40an none exceeded 150 / 95 or values
  • 33:43that would get us very concerned.
  • 33:47I'm talking about pharmacokinetics.
  • 33:48I think I'm going to skip this slide
  • 33:51just in the interest of time and just go
  • 33:54right to the single dose conclusions.
  • 33:56So the conclusions from this study
  • 33:58where the CADA mean was well
  • 34:00tolerated in this small sample.
  • 34:05Really, that cada mean significantly
  • 34:07improved depression symptoms at one
  • 34:10day post infusion as measured by
  • 34:12mattress and adolescents with TRD.
  • 34:14We really didn't have information to share
  • 34:16here about explicit suicidal thinking,
  • 34:18as that was really a rule out in this study.
  • 34:23So I gave you a teaser with the IAT,
  • 34:26but really there needs to be a separate
  • 34:28study that's looking at suicidal thinking.
  • 34:30So this preliminary data suggests
  • 34:32that cada mean may be safe and
  • 34:35effective in the short term.
  • 34:36But as we followed some of these participants
  • 34:39informally after the trial was over,
  • 34:41most people relapsed and that
  • 34:43is consistent with what we see
  • 34:45in adults that the effects of a
  • 34:48single dose are really ephemeral.
  • 34:50So the big conclusion is that
  • 34:52more research is needed.
  • 34:53You know this is exciting that we
  • 34:55have a positive finding in this study,
  • 34:57but I think the real conclusion is
  • 34:59that we need more data as the gaps
  • 35:01in our knowledge are considerable,
  • 35:03and so that's what I'm going to
  • 35:05spend the time talking about.
  • 35:06Now I'm going to talk about four different
  • 35:09areas that sort of keep me up at night
  • 35:11in terms of gaps in understanding and
  • 35:13then maybe in the question period.
  • 35:15Folks have other ideas about important
  • 35:17areas that we should be thinking about,
  • 35:19but I think the first one is
  • 35:21really extending Caribbeans.
  • 35:22Antidepressant efficacy and one way to
  • 35:24do that is to think about repeat dosing,
  • 35:27so this is a paper from an adult
  • 35:30sample back in 2016.
  • 35:32This is showing that twice weekly dosing
  • 35:35over three weeks yields remissions
  • 35:37that last an average of three weeks,
  • 35:40so a better response after getting 6
  • 35:43infusions versus getting a single infusion.
  • 35:46The caveat is that the range of
  • 35:49durability was really variable,
  • 35:50so some folks relapsed in six days some.
  • 35:55Folks made it longer than three months.
  • 35:58And the individual factors that
  • 36:00paration are not well understood.
  • 36:03We have a little bit of experience
  • 36:05with repeat dosing.
  • 36:07This is from a case report that we
  • 36:10published in Jacob back in 2017.
  • 36:13This was an individual case,
  • 36:15a 16 year old boy with a history of ADHD,
  • 36:19depression and Crohn's disease.
  • 36:21Three prior serious suicide attempts,
  • 36:23multiple failed treatments considered, ECT.
  • 36:25But ended up going with Academy in trial.
  • 36:29Like many of you folks have seen
  • 36:32this data before,
  • 36:33but this is looking at
  • 36:35his individual mattress.
  • 36:36So depression and SSI,
  • 36:37so suicidal ideations scores and
  • 36:39the arrows are showing the cada
  • 36:41mean infusions that he received
  • 36:43in this acute series.
  • 36:45You can see reduction in these
  • 36:47symptoms with the first infusion,
  • 36:49but a further and more significant reduction
  • 36:52following with a repeat Series A lot
  • 36:54of times folks will say, well, what's this?
  • 36:57This blip in the middle?
  • 37:00Was the day that his insurance company
  • 37:03denied the potential plan and I think
  • 37:06everybody's Madras scores might have
  • 37:08gone up that day and I think it's
  • 37:11a good point to remember is that
  • 37:13these are treatments that do not
  • 37:15immunize you against disappointment
  • 37:17with disappointing things happen,
  • 37:18but this was a patient that got
  • 37:22substantially better on a repeat.
  • 37:24Don't say paradigm.
  • 37:25What gives us pause?
  • 37:27Why don't we just give repeat
  • 37:30dosing to everybody man?
  • 37:31So I'll tell you about the things
  • 37:34that give us pause about that.
  • 37:37And these are data that come from
  • 37:40studies in humans of people that have
  • 37:43used lots of cada mean recreationally.
  • 37:46Or have ketamine use disorder and
  • 37:49we see neurocognitive effects,
  • 37:50so memory problems,
  • 37:52attention problems and then also urological.
  • 37:54Problems,
  • 37:55so there is bladder damage and
  • 37:57this sort of persistent cystitis
  • 38:00that people present with.
  • 38:02So those are concerning and then
  • 38:05animal studies also give us pause,
  • 38:07particularly in thinking about
  • 38:09developmental populations.
  • 38:10So animal studies that use chronic
  • 38:12dosing at young animals show damage
  • 38:14to areas like the developing
  • 38:16hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
  • 38:18Those are important areas,
  • 38:19and so things like cell death and
  • 38:22white matter changes and their real
  • 38:24issue is that the toxicity threshold of
  • 38:27repeat cada mean exposure is not known.
  • 38:30So we know that there is a dose that's safe.
  • 38:34This is given anesthesia all the
  • 38:36time and people you know don't
  • 38:39really think twice about it.
  • 38:40But we know there's a dose out there
  • 38:43that's too much and there's not a great
  • 38:46understanding in Pediatrics or in adults.
  • 38:48Really, what that dose threshold is.
  • 38:51So that's one piece,
  • 38:53a second related gap.
  • 38:54In understanding that I think about
  • 38:56a lot is what do you do after an
  • 38:59acute cada mean treatment series?
  • 39:01So if we do kind of a similar paradigm to
  • 39:04what we saw in the case report for infusions,
  • 39:07or six infusions over a couple of weeks,
  • 39:10what's next?
  • 39:11What's the game plan?
  • 39:12And so one route that people have taken
  • 39:15is to continue cada mean in some way,
  • 39:18so maintenance infusions,
  • 39:19although the idea of how many an at what?
  • 39:22Intervals those things are really
  • 39:25not worked out very well yet at all.
  • 39:29So a second strategy,
  • 39:30and one that I'm sort of more partial to is,
  • 39:34can we harness the period of Wellness
  • 39:37and people that respond to cada
  • 39:40mean by using more traditional
  • 39:42psychiatric treatment approaches?
  • 39:44I bring back another busy cartoon just
  • 39:47to remind you that there is this idea
  • 39:50that cada mean enhances synaptic plasticity.
  • 39:53Synaptic plasticity is very important
  • 39:55for things like learning and so folks
  • 39:58have started to ask is there this?
  • 40:00Is there a period of ketamin induced
  • 40:03enhanced synaptic plasticity that
  • 40:05would make things like psychotherapy
  • 40:07more impactful and so there's
  • 40:09a number of studies in adults,
  • 40:11including one here at Yale
  • 40:13with my colleague Sam.
  • 40:15Trying to give intensive
  • 40:17psychotherapy during the period
  • 40:19of acute ketamine treatment,
  • 40:21so CBT in his case.
  • 40:25But there are a number of other groups
  • 40:27out there that are looking at different
  • 40:30types of psychotherapeutic modalities,
  • 40:32so I think this is a really interesting
  • 40:34and important area to be thinking about.
  • 40:40The third gap that keeps me up at night.
  • 40:42You can tell I don't get a lot of sleep
  • 40:45and it's not just 'cause I have a newborn.
  • 40:48I like this cartoon,
  • 40:49says the tortoise and the hare is
  • 40:51actually a fable about small sample sizes.
  • 40:54And he's reading and says
  • 40:55after 19 additional trials.
  • 40:56Of course the results were
  • 40:58shown to be anomalous.
  • 41:00And so, even though I'm really
  • 41:02encouraged that we have this
  • 41:04positive trial that just came out,
  • 41:06we really need larger sample sizes.
  • 41:08If you look at the history
  • 41:10of clinical trials,
  • 41:11there are many stories of exciting
  • 41:13trials with ends of 10 or 15 or 20
  • 41:16that do not pan out in the larger term.
  • 41:19And so we really need a concerted effort
  • 41:23across institutions with federal funding.
  • 41:25To try to do the rigorous studies
  • 41:28that are needed so one question
  • 41:30and then a second question,
  • 41:32I think that's related is
  • 41:34what about suicidality?
  • 41:36Again, this was not really something
  • 41:38that we addressed in our first trial,
  • 41:41but it's something that's very
  • 41:43much on our minds.
  • 41:44So what about suicidality?
  • 41:47And then a fourth gap in our
  • 41:49understanding is cademy, and for whom?
  • 41:51And this this gap has a lot of pieces to it,
  • 41:55so you could take it a lot
  • 41:57of different places. One is.
  • 41:59Disorders right so in the mean ha.
  • 42:06He presses the promised
  • 42:07data for anxiety disorders.
  • 42:09It has promising data for PTSD
  • 42:11and I think you know other folks
  • 42:14are investigating a number of
  • 42:16other different DSM diagnosis,
  • 42:18and I think you know I feel a
  • 42:21few different ways about that.
  • 42:23You know at first I thought, OK.
  • 42:26What is this a panacea?
  • 42:28Cada mean for everyday mean?
  • 42:31But then when you look at the list
  • 42:34of disorders that are up there,
  • 42:36you know SSR eyes are the first line
  • 42:39treatment for all four of those disorders,
  • 42:42so it would not be outside of our
  • 42:45history that single medication or
  • 42:47type of medication is effective
  • 42:49for multiple disorders,
  • 42:50and I think that's relevant
  • 42:52to in child psychiatry work.
  • 42:54Comorbidity is so very common,
  • 42:56but thinking about whether
  • 42:58cada mean is useful in some of
  • 43:00these other disorders as a.
  • 43:02Totally open question.
  • 43:05Another question about Kennedy firm is
  • 43:08whether there are clinical features
  • 43:10or predisposing factors that would
  • 43:12make someone a better candidate.
  • 43:14So a number of these have been
  • 43:16explored in adult psychiatry.
  • 43:18So anxious depression for awhile was
  • 43:21sort of the hot topic for a particularly.
  • 43:25Good Academy in case.
  • 43:27Anhedonia or loss of pleasure
  • 43:29is another symptom.
  • 43:31That cada mean seems to be good at treating,
  • 43:34and this can be a really sticky,
  • 43:37debilitating symptom that doesn't
  • 43:39get great coverage with SSRI's.
  • 43:41And then a study came out.
  • 43:43Actually quite recently that showed
  • 43:44the adults that had a history of
  • 43:46childhood trauma actually seemed
  • 43:48to do better with cada mean,
  • 43:49and I think that you know,
  • 43:51is an interesting overlap with.
  • 43:54A potential PTSD implication.
  • 43:59Question of how do we separate?
  • 44:04Today
  • 44:07uh?
  • 44:10Cedar wood. Out. Who would respond and
  • 44:16who would not respond to cada mean?
  • 44:18And I think this really gets at the
  • 44:20of a personalized medicine goal.
  • 44:23I think many of us,
  • 44:24especially you know when you're seeing
  • 44:26people that have tried many treatments,
  • 44:28this is a very fresh.
  • 44:31Things right, try something.
  • 44:32It doesn't work.
  • 44:33We try a new thing.
  • 44:35We wait another eight weeks and we
  • 44:38try something again and there is
  • 44:40just so much last time you know,
  • 44:42I think we see that in adult psychiatry,
  • 44:45but it is really acute in child
  • 44:47and adolescent psychiatry.
  • 44:48Developmental time is precious.
  • 44:51In this sort of empiric exercise of
  • 44:53just trying things and they work or
  • 44:55they don't work without any real.
  • 44:57Predictive data or strategy.
  • 45:01I think we you know patients failed.
  • 45:07So personalizing a goal?
  • 45:13I did this summer.
  • 45:15Out I'm interested to hear gaps
  • 45:17are on your to remind you how to
  • 45:21extend the antidepressant efficacy.
  • 45:23While the risks of repeat
  • 45:25dosing or not fully known.
  • 45:30The reason whether we can partner cada mean
  • 45:33with more traditional psychiatric approaches.
  • 45:36Does Academy have antidepressant and anti
  • 45:38suicidal properties in pediatric populations?
  • 45:40We need bigger studies and we need them now.
  • 45:45And then personalized medicine approaches.
  • 45:46So who are the best candidates for cada mean?
  • 45:49And can we predict treatment
  • 45:51response is ahead of time?
  • 45:53And so I will spend my last five
  • 45:56minutes talking about some of the
  • 45:58work that is doing to try to get.
  • 46:00The questions and so I'm going to talk
  • 46:03about some repeat dosing clinical trials
  • 46:06that we have getting ready to go.
  • 46:09So there's two studies,
  • 46:10so one is called the sad kid study.
  • 46:14This is an acronym that took
  • 46:16many weeks to develop.
  • 46:18The severe adolescent depression,
  • 46:19cada mean intermediate duration study.
  • 46:21This was a mentor toward that.
  • 46:24Starting with the Klingons tied
  • 46:27third Generation Foundation when
  • 46:28I was in my last year of the solar
  • 46:31program and was bolstered by an
  • 46:338 cap Junior Investigator award.
  • 46:35It's mentored by Jerry and Michael.
  • 46:38And then a second study which
  • 46:40I'm really excited about.
  • 46:41So this is the recent are one that I
  • 46:44received were calling us the read study,
  • 46:47reducing adolescent suicidality.
  • 46:48And then I can't have a title that
  • 46:51doesn't have some long extra subtitle,
  • 46:53safety, efficacy,
  • 46:54and connectome phenotypes of Ivy, Cada mean.
  • 46:56And I'm talking about these two together
  • 46:59because they have similar designs.
  • 47:01I really like this design 'cause I think
  • 47:03it balances the rigor of a parallel
  • 47:06design trial with sort of a patient.
  • 47:08Friendly option,
  • 47:09so I'll tell you about these together,
  • 47:12so both of these studies are
  • 47:15two phase trials.
  • 47:16So in the first phase people are randomized
  • 47:19to receive several doses of either
  • 47:22repeat CADA mean or repeat medazzaland AM.
  • 47:25After that period there is an
  • 47:28open phase of several months.
  • 47:30The people that received cada
  • 47:32mean just go straight through.
  • 47:34They received standard
  • 47:35depression treatment weekly,
  • 47:37mood assessments and monthly
  • 47:39cognitive and mood batteries.
  • 47:41And then the part that I really like.
  • 47:43Like if I were thinking about
  • 47:44enrolling in a trial like this,
  • 47:46my worry would be, hey,
  • 47:47you know I'm very symptomatic.
  • 47:49I've tried a lot of things.
  • 47:50What if I get placebo and I don't get
  • 47:53better like what do I do with that?
  • 47:55And so I think.
  • 47:58That that as a lamb if they do not.
  • 48:04Improvement are then offered the
  • 48:06opportunity to receive the CADA mean
  • 48:09paradigm in the open phase and then we
  • 48:13follow everyone over that period of months.
  • 48:16The differences between the
  • 48:18studies are sort of shown here,
  • 48:21so in the sad kids, we're looking at
  • 48:24pediatric treatment resistant oppression.
  • 48:26The paradigm is 6 inches and there is
  • 48:28an allowance for a couple additional
  • 48:31symptom triggered maintenance
  • 48:33infusions and then the primary outcome
  • 48:36for the top study is depression.
  • 48:38And that contrasts with the NIH study,
  • 48:41where the population is not
  • 48:44only pediatric TRD,
  • 48:45but also folks that have been
  • 48:47struggling with suicidal ideations.
  • 48:49So they have to have both treatment
  • 48:52resistant depression and significant
  • 48:54suicidal thinking or action in the
  • 48:57four months prior to enrollment.
  • 49:00This paradigm is using four infusions and
  • 49:03our primary outcome is suicidal thinking.
  • 49:06So we hope that most of the people that
  • 49:09come across our way that are appropriate
  • 49:11for this kind of treatment would fit
  • 49:14into one of these two clinical trials.
  • 49:17And then the last piece which
  • 49:20I'm really excited about.
  • 49:21You might have noticed this tiny brain
  • 49:24just appeared under the enroll in
  • 49:26randomized and we've worked to try to
  • 49:28get at that prediction personalized
  • 49:31medicine piece by incorporating
  • 49:33neuroimaging strategically into
  • 49:34these clinical trials.
  • 49:35So this is a collaboration
  • 49:37with Todd Constable,
  • 49:39who's here at Yale in the Department
  • 49:42of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.
  • 49:44And so we're interested in functional
  • 49:47connectome response predictors.
  • 49:48So what does that actually mean?
  • 49:51So Todd's lab has developed this.
  • 49:55This algorithm called connectome based
  • 49:57predictive modeling and what that
  • 49:59means is that you go in a magnet.
  • 50:01You do some resting state stuff where
  • 50:04you just rest you do a series of
  • 50:07tasks which are listed below and the
  • 50:09tasks are designed to try to sort
  • 50:11of stretch your brain across all
  • 50:13of these different neurocognitive
  • 50:15domains and by getting like a full
  • 50:17picture of how your brain is working
  • 50:19across all these domains,
  • 50:21you get this highly individual connectome
  • 50:23fingerprint and then you try to see if that.
  • 50:26Highly individual fingerprint is
  • 50:28associated with treatment response.
  • 50:29The scan time is under an hour,
  • 50:33so we think it's feasible and why
  • 50:35I'm excited about this is Todd's
  • 50:38group is showed that you can predict
  • 50:41with this approach.
  • 50:43Symptoms of interest,
  • 50:44so things like inattention in
  • 50:46ADHD sample or autism scores,
  • 50:48and a mixed sample of ADHD and autism.
  • 50:52Sarah Yep,
  • 50:53slab here has used this for
  • 50:56treatment outcomes.
  • 50:57So she had a great paper and a JP
  • 50:59that showed that they could predict
  • 51:02success in cocaine use disorder
  • 51:04using this kind of approach,
  • 51:06but there really has not been any pediatric
  • 51:09work trying to predict treatment response.
  • 51:12With neuroimaging in a clinical trial design.
  • 51:15So I'm super excited about
  • 51:17this and hope it can move us.
  • 51:19Maybe one step,
  • 51:21one inch closer on the personalized
  • 51:24medicine front.
  • 51:25I'm also excited because
  • 51:26I think that NIH is really
  • 51:28starting to prioritize
  • 51:30rapid acting interventions,
  • 51:31so this was a highlight that they
  • 51:34published recently about the RFA
  • 51:36that my new grant is through,
  • 51:38so there were eight studies awarded
  • 51:41and four of them are for youth,
  • 51:44so I'm really encouraged by that.
  • 51:46So mine is there at the top.
  • 51:49There's a group at Cleveland Clinic that's
  • 51:51also doing a pediatric cada mean study.
  • 51:55In a group at you T.
  • 51:57Southwestern,
  • 51:57and then I also highlighting I I sort
  • 51:59of listed all these interventional
  • 52:02techniques including our TMS,
  • 52:03but I didn't really talk about our TMS.
  • 52:06The rest of this talk,
  • 52:08but there's also an R TMS study that's
  • 52:11trying to use that technique to reduce
  • 52:14suicidal ideations in adolescence.
  • 52:16So I threw a lot of things that you during
  • 52:20this hour and I guess to summarize them,
  • 52:23I view the current status
  • 52:25as cautious optimism, but.
  • 52:28I think the unknown risk profile
  • 52:31of the repeated exposure component
  • 52:33makes the risk benefit analysis
  • 52:36really complicated to do.
  • 52:38So the things that I think about you
  • 52:40know folks don't fit neatly within
  • 52:43a clinical trial is that patients
  • 52:45should be truly treatment resistant,
  • 52:48so carefully confirming
  • 52:49their past treatment trials.
  • 52:51There needs to be informed
  • 52:53consent about the risks,
  • 52:54the benefits,
  • 52:55and just our overall state of understanding.
  • 52:58There needs to be direct supervision by
  • 53:01physicians that have adequate training
  • 53:03and having a solid follow up plan.
  • 53:06And then the last sort of plug for
  • 53:09the work that our group is doing.
  • 53:12Is this work that we started doing
  • 53:13during COVID as more pediatric
  • 53:15patients and families seek
  • 53:17interventional psychiatric services?
  • 53:18What kind of availability attitudes or
  • 53:20practice parameters do they encounter?
  • 53:22And so we really wanted to hear
  • 53:24from providers in the Community
  • 53:26about what do you know about these?
  • 53:29Do you know how to refer someone to these?
  • 53:32Do use these yourself and so you are
  • 53:35exactly the people that we wanted to talk to.
  • 53:38If you snap a photo of this QR code,
  • 53:42it will take you to a survey
  • 53:44that just asks about attitudes,
  • 53:47availability and practice parameters of
  • 53:49these types of treatment modalities.
  • 53:51'cause I think we know that finding
  • 53:53any kind of mental health treatment
  • 53:56can be really daunting,
  • 53:58particularly in the current climate.
  • 54:00With COVID stretching people very thin,
  • 54:03so looking for specialized care of
  • 54:05this nature, I think is even more.
  • 54:08Tricky,
  • 54:09and so we'd like to see what kind
  • 54:12of things our patients are facing.
  • 54:15So I'm going to stop there and just
  • 54:18say thank you so to our patients
  • 54:21and their families to current
  • 54:23and past lab members.
  • 54:25To my mentors Michael and Jerry,
  • 54:27who have just been supportive,
  • 54:30an amazing both during my
  • 54:32residency and fellowship,
  • 54:33but perhaps even more importantly,
  • 54:35during the junior faculty period,
  • 54:37which is tricky.
  • 54:39So I really appreciate their work.
  • 54:42In their help,
  • 54:43and then of course,
  • 54:44the folks that are funding the
  • 54:46work down on the bottom left and
  • 54:48I would be happy to take any
  • 54:49questions or chat in the couple of minutes
  • 54:52that we have remaining. Thank you.
  • 54:59So thank you very much for the
  • 55:01excellent talk. I'm actually
  • 55:03not gonna ask a question 'cause
  • 55:05I got stuff in chat. My
  • 55:07chat has been blown up with questions
  • 55:10for you, so I guess I was gonna start
  • 55:13off by just calling on a future solemate
  • 55:15Max Rowlison who had a question for
  • 55:18you and Christiana Mills is on deck.
  • 55:23Hey Jenny, thanks so much.
  • 55:25Really exciting work and
  • 55:27very impressive results.
  • 55:31My question, many adolescents with
  • 55:32treatment resistant depression kind of, as
  • 55:35you alluded to, have Co
  • 55:36occurring psychiatric disorders,
  • 55:37in particular anxiety in OC
  • 55:39D come to
  • 55:40mind and how
  • 55:41do you think about integrating cada
  • 55:43mean and depression treatment when
  • 55:45there also are these Co occurring
  • 55:47psychiatric disorders that are likely
  • 55:49contributing to the presentation?
  • 55:54Yeah, I think comorbidity is a really
  • 55:58important question and we actually are
  • 56:01seeing this OC D depression comorbid
  • 56:04phenotype relatively frequently
  • 56:06in the clinical work we're doing
  • 56:09through the pediatric TRD clinic.
  • 56:13So I I think including those tricky
  • 56:16cases in clinical trials is important.
  • 56:18Oh, everyone's frozen on my screen,
  • 56:20which is maybe not a good sign.
  • 56:25But there's some data that cada mean can
  • 56:28be helpful for OCD symptoms. Be that
  • 56:31they would get relief in both domains.
  • 56:37Thank you.
  • 56:42Christiana, Europe north.
  • 56:43Thank you. So thank you so much for
  • 56:46that presentation was really interesting.
  • 56:48I was curious if in your newer studies
  • 56:51it's going to be possible to collect
  • 56:54some information about trauma in the
  • 56:56subjects and our clinical in our
  • 56:58clinical population. The rate of
  • 57:00trauma is really high and so I just
  • 57:03be curious what you would learn.
  • 57:15Oh
  • 57:18sorry, I turn my camera off 'cause
  • 57:21my feed doesn't sound great.
  • 57:23I think what I heard was asking about
  • 57:27trauma information in our population and we.
  • 57:31The Childhood Trauma questionnaire.
  • 57:33As part of our pre screening and
  • 57:35there's no exclusion for trauma,
  • 57:37so we think that those are appropriate
  • 57:40patients to come to this study.
  • 57:42Barring any of the other exclusions.
  • 57:44But we think this could be a good
  • 57:47fit for some of those patients.
  • 57:50I guess I was a little curious
  • 57:53like what is the rate of your subjects
  • 57:57reporting some significant trauma?
  • 57:59I wasn't suggesting that they be excluded.
  • 58:01I was just curious what
  • 58:02you learned about them.
  • 58:05Sure, I mean in our first study,
  • 58:08the rate was relatively low and I think
  • 58:11part of that was an outpatient study.
  • 58:14Many of the people that found us
  • 58:18found usthroughclinicaltrials.gov.
  • 58:18It was a more affluent population,
  • 58:21so those rates were relatively low.
  • 58:27We're going to work harder to get the
  • 58:29word out for these newer studies,
  • 58:31and so I would expect that it would be
  • 58:34a higher rate in the upcoming study,
  • 58:37but that remains to be seen.
  • 58:42I guess I I guess it's 2:00 o'clock,
  • 58:44so I guess people who need to jump
  • 58:46off should please jump off and
  • 58:48not feel bad about jumping off.
  • 58:50I'm wondering, can we stay on to answer
  • 58:52a few more questions if people have them.
  • 58:55Metal OK. We're not going to be too sure.
  • 59:00OK, we're gonna I guess Larry
  • 59:02Villanos I know still on 'cause I
  • 59:04can see him on camera so I was hoping
  • 59:06he could ask his question.
  • 59:10Yeah, just first of all Jenny.
  • 59:12That was an amazing talk really.
  • 59:15You're so clear and concise and I
  • 59:17just learned a lot and you know,
  • 59:20so proud of you.
  • 59:21So I was wondering about the
  • 59:23recreation appeal of CADA mean.
  • 59:25You know, Special K and and
  • 59:27what it is an in the population.
  • 59:30It just made me think are there individuals
  • 59:33out there who are self medicating?
  • 59:35You know, with the with the abuse
  • 59:38of cada mean in your opinion.
  • 59:40Never thought about this before your talk
  • 59:42and I just I just wondered about that.
  • 59:46Yeah, I think it's a great question.
  • 59:48We I was recently doing a conference,
  • 59:51a virtual conference at Oxford
  • 59:52with Academy Group and there was
  • 59:55a presenter there that was talking
  • 59:57about Kennedy and use patterns in
  • 59:59various places across the globe.
  • 01:00:00And we talked about this idea of whether
  • 01:00:03there's a component or a proportion
  • 01:00:05of people that are self medicating.
  • 01:00:07And I think you know that maybe that
  • 01:00:10may be the case of particularly as
  • 01:00:13the news has gone out that this is.
  • 01:00:16Can be a helpful thing.
  • 01:00:18I would imagine that that might
  • 01:00:21you know increase further and
  • 01:00:23there are certainly hypotheses.
  • 01:00:25About you know folks that use
  • 01:00:27psychostimulant recreationally that
  • 01:00:29have undiagnosed or undertreated ADHD,
  • 01:00:31so I think you know.
  • 01:00:33Thinking about self medication is
  • 01:00:35A is a good thing to keep in mind.
  • 01:00:39And
  • 01:00:39what was the original attraction
  • 01:00:41as a regulation of drugs? I mean,
  • 01:00:43what's the appeal of dissociating or?
  • 01:00:47I don't know if I have
  • 01:00:49a great answer to that.
  • 01:00:51I mean, I think some people are
  • 01:00:53just interested in altering
  • 01:00:54their experience and maybe what
  • 01:00:56one person would find pleasant.
  • 01:00:59Another person would find very unpleasant,
  • 01:01:01but I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
  • 01:01:05OK. Thank you.
  • 01:01:09I guess I'm gonna, I think also would be
  • 01:01:12worth just mentioning what the stuff we
  • 01:01:14do to prevent the abuse of the Academy
  • 01:01:17were giving subjects in the study.
  • 01:01:19Is that way there's no take home cada
  • 01:01:21mean and fairly all the treatments or
  • 01:01:23are given in a clinic based setting.
  • 01:01:26And that's true of the provider.
  • 01:01:28The FDA medication too.
  • 01:01:29I guess I'm going to call and
  • 01:01:31Emily Olson next.
  • 01:01:32She had a question in the chat.
  • 01:01:38Great talk Jenny.
  • 01:01:39I was just thinking about I
  • 01:01:42read a New York Times article
  • 01:01:45yesterday that talked about a
  • 01:01:47study done in adults in PTSD
  • 01:01:49where they found that MDMA.
  • 01:01:54Made it was effective when combined
  • 01:01:56with therapy in helping PTSD and
  • 01:01:58as I was listening to your talk
  • 01:02:01and thinking about what you were
  • 01:02:03saying about this after cada mean,
  • 01:02:05like taking advantage of that
  • 01:02:07period using in depression and kids.
  • 01:02:09I was just thinking about whether
  • 01:02:11Cada mean is going to be a part
  • 01:02:14of kind of a group of medication,
  • 01:02:16some kind of new medications
  • 01:02:18and I was wondering,
  • 01:02:20given your expertise and you
  • 01:02:22know a lot about this weather.
  • 01:02:24What your thoughts were on this?
  • 01:02:28And kind of what you thought
  • 01:02:30the future would be. And I mean,
  • 01:02:33I think it's amazing how quickly you're
  • 01:02:35you're now studying this in kids,
  • 01:02:37which I think is wonderful,
  • 01:02:39and whether these other treatments
  • 01:02:40I know there's a lot of talk
  • 01:02:43about psilocybin as well.
  • 01:02:44What your thoughts are about
  • 01:02:46kind of bringing these as these
  • 01:02:48developments come in adults,
  • 01:02:49seeing if they also help kids as well.
  • 01:02:52Whether it's depression,
  • 01:02:53anxiety, PTSD, etc.
  • 01:02:56Yeah, I mean it's a great.
  • 01:02:58Question, and I think I read the same
  • 01:03:01article that you did and you know,
  • 01:03:03I think the folks that are studying
  • 01:03:05psilocybin and maybe MDA may as well have
  • 01:03:08kind of a different attitude about it
  • 01:03:10than a lot of the Academy researchers.
  • 01:03:12And I don't quite know why that is.
  • 01:03:15But you know, I think the.
  • 01:03:18Experience is a key part of the
  • 01:03:21therapeutic ingredients for the MD,
  • 01:03:22MA and psilocybin studies,
  • 01:03:24whereas I think a lot of the CADA
  • 01:03:27mean studies folks kind of view
  • 01:03:29the experience as like a nuisance.
  • 01:03:31And like if we could build
  • 01:03:33a better mousetrap,
  • 01:03:34we would not have the experience.
  • 01:03:36I think even the choice of Esketamine
  • 01:03:39with Janssen they thought OK,
  • 01:03:40this has less dissociated stuff.
  • 01:03:42It binds tighter Dan and MDA.
  • 01:03:44You know the best cada mean would have
  • 01:03:47nothing and so it's really a difference.
  • 01:03:50A different way of viewing
  • 01:03:52things and there's, you know,
  • 01:03:54some evidence for and some against on,
  • 01:03:57the dissociative experience
  • 01:03:58correlating with treatment efficacy.
  • 01:03:59So there's some data sort of on both sides,
  • 01:04:03so in a way I think they are sort of
  • 01:04:07all in this bubble of, like you know,
  • 01:04:10rediscovered or newly appreciated.
  • 01:04:12Medications that had some kind of stigma
  • 01:04:15attached to them before that are now
  • 01:04:18being re explored in rigorous contexts.
  • 01:04:20I think in terms of like
  • 01:04:24translating things into Pediatrics.
  • 01:04:26You know, I feel like.
  • 01:04:28I mean has a history.
  • 01:04:32Nervous, the other types of things
  • 01:04:34that really don't have a pediatric
  • 01:04:37safety history or use ever,
  • 01:04:38so I don't think I would be at the front
  • 01:04:42of the line to be doing those studies,
  • 01:04:45but I think for all of these types of things
  • 01:04:49it's like a risk benefit analysis, right?
  • 01:04:52If someone has tried everything that we
  • 01:04:54have and nothing has worked, including ECT.
  • 01:04:57Think it's hard to make an
  • 01:05:00argument that if they're really,
  • 01:05:02you know, want to try something,
  • 01:05:04especially in like a clinical trial context,
  • 01:05:07you know.
  • 01:05:07These are risk benefit discussions
  • 01:05:09and reasonable people can disagree so,
  • 01:05:11but it's a very interesting area.
  • 01:05:13I think in terms of just ethics
  • 01:05:15and trial design and access.
  • 01:05:24It.
  • 01:05:30Jenny, we lost you Jenny.
  • 01:05:34The. But I will.
  • 01:05:37I guess I'll step over the silence and
  • 01:05:41then just say that I think we people.
  • 01:05:45OK yeah, I think you're back.
  • 01:05:48Let's see or I will.
  • 01:05:50I think we're going to have
  • 01:05:53to wrap up in a second,
  • 01:05:55but by it's a big thing is that we've
  • 01:05:57both been very hesitant to look at
  • 01:06:00the other psychedelic medications.
  • 01:06:01'cause I think there's already
  • 01:06:03one of the issues with cada mean.
  • 01:06:05And as Academy that seem like
  • 01:06:07they're very promising treatments.
  • 01:06:08Or the. The cavalier nature of it.
  • 01:06:15I just think it mean is so much better
  • 01:06:17if the data profile than the other
  • 01:06:20medications at the moment or the
  • 01:06:22drugs both in terms of efficacy and
  • 01:06:24safety than it would really get it.
  • 01:06:27It may. It may hurt the credibility
  • 01:06:29of some of the research to to go
  • 01:06:32after other stuff prematurely.
  • 01:06:36And then also, there's just such a need
  • 01:06:39to combine the treatments with the with
  • 01:06:42the evidence based psychotherapies.
  • 01:06:46Yeah, I don't know if folks in here,
  • 01:06:48me or not. My Internet
  • 01:06:50is going on strike today.
  • 01:06:52Hear you with your pictures off. We
  • 01:06:55can hear you. Yeah, OK good yeah.
  • 01:06:57I mean I couldn't agree more with Michael
  • 01:07:00and that you know a big part of our
  • 01:07:02efforts I think should also be just
  • 01:07:04getting the things that we already know.
  • 01:07:07Work to the people that need them.
  • 01:07:09You know, a good solid psychotherapy
  • 01:07:11or reasonable SSRI trial.
  • 01:07:12I think in some ways.
  • 01:07:15I've taken for granted that that's you
  • 01:07:17know that that's readily available.
  • 01:07:19I think a lot of times it isn't,
  • 01:07:22and so expanding acts.
  • 01:07:24To our. The.
  • 01:07:30They make. I think the Internet gods
  • 01:07:33are telling us to wrap this up soon.
  • 01:07:36But I just wanted to thank you for
  • 01:07:39talking and thank the Internet gods for
  • 01:07:41for it holding out on us the whole time.
  • 01:07:44So until now and then we could.
  • 01:07:47We got through the talk and you did an
  • 01:07:50excellent job and Internet connection
  • 01:07:51just went bad at the end, but.
  • 01:07:55Excellent job and please feel free
  • 01:07:58to email Jenny with any other OK.