‘Tremendous advance’
Session co-chair Mark Weiser, MD, chairman at the department of psychiatry, Tel Aviv (Israel) University, said in an interview that the results are “very exciting” and offer “further proof of a tremendous advance in our field.”
Dr. Weiser, who was not involved in the study, added that demonstrating functional improvement with esketamine was key.
“It’s great to improve symptoms,” he said, “but to have patients show an improvement in their functionality is really the bottom line of this. Not only do you feel better, but you function better, and that’s of extreme importance and makes us feel very optimistic about the future.”
Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga, MD, PhD, head of psychiatry, Vall Hebron University Hospital and Autonomous University of Barcelona, welcomed the findings.
“The results of this study show the superior response and safety of esketamine nasal spray when compared with quetiapine,” he said in a release. “This gives people with treatment-resistant depression more safe treatment options.”
The study was funded by Janssen EMEA. Dr. Reif has relationships with Boehringer Ingelheim, COMPASS, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, LivaNova USA, Medice, Saga Therapeutics, and Shire. Other authors have disclosed numerous relationships with industry.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.