Efficacy and Safety of Intranasal Esketamine in Treatment-Resistant Depression with Comorbid Autism Spectrum Disorder: Three Case Reports

Intranasal esketamine showed a favorable efficacy and safety in these three cases of TRD in comorbidity with ASD (at six months: total remission = 66.66%, partial remission = 33.33%, inefficacy = 0%, drop-out = 0, severe adverse events = 0). Besides improvements in depressive symptoms, esketamine was associated with a constant decrease in suicidal thoughts. A case series is unfit to form statistical conclusions; preliminary data warrant further investigation in randomized controlled studies to validate the therapeutic potential of esketamine in this population.