Researchers Say Club Drug Relieves Depression Symptoms In Hours

According to research published in the journal Science, the drug ketamine can repair brain cell connections that have been disrupted by depression and stress.

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine discovered that ketamine, an anesthetic used by doctors and veterinarians alike, has the ability to quickly bring relief from depression to people who are suffering from treatment-resistant bipolar disorder.

Ketamine can relieve depression symptoms in a matter of hours

The rapid nature of ketamine is in stark contrast to the current set of antidepressants available today, which take weeks to work and in fact don't work at all in as many as one-third of all patients.

Ketamine, which relies on a different neurotransmitter system than antidepressants, presents depression patients with a potential means of relieving depression symptoms in a matter of hours.

According to Ronald Duman, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Neurobiology,

"The rapid therapeutic response of ketamine in treatment-resistant patients is the biggest breakthrough in depression research in a half century."

Ketamine is associated with short-term experiences of psychosis

Symptoms are relieved quickly, but they are not eliminated by ketamine. They return in a week or so. Another potential drawback is that ketamine is used as a recreational drug known as "Special K," and people who take too much are said to fall into a "K hole," which expresses short-term symptoms of psychosis.

Source: Medical News Today
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