Maciej Miłkowski: esketamine therapy is the first drug program in Polish psychiatry

The group of people suffering from drug-resistant depression is 30 percent of those struggling with depression in general. This is a large group for whom there has been no treatment for many years. Esquetamine, a well-known treatment for depression starting in 2019, will be reimbursed. This was a big expectation, above all, I think, of patients.

This was a high expectation of the environment. Although this environment did not insist so strongly, because it is a drug not for the general population, difficult to administer. The centers will certainly qualify patients carefully. The therapy is timed, as it lasts 8 months. After that, one moves on to treatment with primary drugs. It is an add-on, combination therapy. And it's certainly a big thing, because in the field of psychiatry there hasn't been much news. In depression, this is the latest drug. In Poland, drugs that had already ended their exclusivity were reimbursed, which put us at the end of countries in Europe. Now, thanks to the accepted funding for the drug, we are in the top half. We will define the group of patients and specialists eligible for such treatment. The opportunity to undertake this program will be broad. It is worth noting that this is the first drug program in psychiatry at all.