Ketamine Use for Suicidal Ideation in the General Hospital: Case Report and Short Review

Introduction

Suicidal behaviour among inpatients in general hospitals carries a higher risk than in the general population, and the medical environment is often harder to make physically safe than psychiatric wards. Earlier research has suggested that low-dose, subanaesthetic ketamine infusion (commonly 0.5 mg/kg) has rapid antisuicide and antidepressant effects and a safety profile that permits use even in medically ill patients. This combination of potentially fast efficacy and acceptable short-term safety motivates consideration of ketamine by consultation–liaison psychiatrists when persistent suicidal ideation cannot be managed by environmental restriction alone. Vulser and colleagues present a single-case report of intravenous low-dose ketamine used to treat persistent suicidal ideation in a patient who remained in a general medical ward after a severe suicide attempt. The report aims to document the clinical course, tolerability, and temporal relationship between ketamine infusions and standardised measures of depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation in this setting, and to briefly situate the case within available literature about ketamine use for acute suicidality in medically ill inpatients.