Friday, February 17, 2012

Ketamine for Depression


By:  Alexandra Shaker, MA

Antidepressant medications have been criticized for a number of reasons, including unwanted side effects, a high placebo response rate, and the fact that they tend to take weeks to kick in.  In an effort to reduce the time between first dose and reduction of depressive symptoms, scientists are exploring the effects of Ketamine on individuals suffering from depression, for whom other antidepressants have been ineffective.

        When I heard about this development on NPR, my first reaction was confusion, as I (and I think many others) associate Ketamine with its recreational title, Special K.  (I’ve learned that it is also sometimes referred to as Cat Valium, Kit Kat, and Super Acid). However, I was surprised to find out that it is actually a schedule III drug in the United States, meaning that it’s known to be less addictive than schedule I and II drugs (which include marijuana and Ritalin) and that it has been deemed medically useful.
        Some patients who’ve taken Ketamine report that their depression lifted within a day, and describe a dramatic difference in their state of mind in that interval.  Jon Hamilton of National Public Radio’s health blog Shots explains that Ketamine works on the brain’s glutamate system, unlike other antidepressants.   While reports of nearly instant improvement are impressive, research on Ketamine for depression is still in its early stages and there are some significant problems with it at present – some individuals experience
hallucinations, and Ketamine can be addictive, to name a few.
        A great deal of hope seems to be invested in the future of Ketamine for depression – an online search found articles with titles like “New form of Ketamine treats depression “like magic”’ and “Club drug Ketamine cures depression instantly: How?”, and perhaps this is a pattern we can trace back to the advent of many psychotropics medications.  Will Ketamine be known as a true game changer in years to come or will it become yet another semi-successful (or semi-failed, depending on how you see it) attempt to address severe depression?

Via: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/01/31/146096540/i-wanted-to-live-new-depression-drugs-offer-hope-for-toughest-cases
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/329/5994/959.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16894061

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