FROM 01 May, Spravato nasal spray (esketamine) will be available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for adults with depression that has not responded adequately to at least two different antidepressants.
This is the first new type of medicine for major depression to be funded by the government in three decades, and was recommended for PBS listing by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in the Dec intracycle meeting last year (PD 04 Feb).
Up to 30,000 Australians are expected to receive the medication through the PBS at a cost of $7.70 (pensioner or concession card) or $31.60 (general patients) for each dose of the medicine, compared to around $800 prior to PBS listing.
Spravato is a glutamate receptor modulator and works by increasing glutamate levels in the brain to stimulate and restore message transmission within the brain.
Spravato treatment is only available through specialised centres under clinical supervision, and must be used in conjunction with a newly-initiated oral antidepressant.
The most common side effects include dissociation, dizziness, nausea, sedation, reduced sense of touch and sensation, anxiety and increased blood pressure.
Psychiatry professor Ian Hickie of the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, welcomed the reimbursement of Spravato noting that "for the first time, we have a government funded medicine specifically for people trapped in an acute depressive episode despite treatment with multiple antidepressants".
"People with treatment-resistant depression have complex and often urgent mental healthcare needs," Professor Hickie said.
"Affordable access to treatment is essential if we are to help them out of what is often a dark, deep and dangerous hole," he concluded. KB
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