Daniel Ionescu

Daniel F. Ionescu is a psychiatrist and clinical researcher whose work centres on rapid-acting antidepressant treatments and interventions for high-risk mood disorders. His research emphasis includes intravenous ketamine and intranasal esketamine for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar depression and patients with active suicidal ideation. Ionescu has contributed to both randomised controlled trials and pooled analyses that evaluate efficacy, safety and patient-reported outcomes in acute and chronic suicidal states, as well as investigations stratifying response by anxious versus non-anxious presentations.

Ionescu’s major contributions include involvement in phase 3 clinical trials of esketamine for rapid reduction of depressive symptoms in patients with active suicidal ideation (ASPIRE I and ASPIRE II) and subsequent pooled analyses of patient-reported outcomes, as well as randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled studies of repeat-dose ketamine augmentation in treatment-resistant depression with chronic suicidal ideation. He has also authored and co-authored clinical trials examining intravenous ketamine efficacy in anxious versus non-anxious unipolar depression and single-infusion ketamine effects in anxious bipolar depression. His work is notable for focusing on acute-risk populations, pragmatic clinical trial designs, and measurement of both clinician-rated and patient-reported outcomes to inform real-world treatment strategies for suicidal and treatment-resistant mood disorders.