Party Drug may Treat Severe Depression: The Magic Effects of Ketamine

It might sound rather unorthodox that ketamine, a drug medically used as a strong anesthetic for animals, could also be used to treat severe depression. Worse yet, the substance has even been used as a "date-rape" drug, which can cause hallucinations and immobilization. Yet a recent study examines how patients with serious depression who received infusions of ketamine rapidly benefited from the strange care.

According to researchers from the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Oxford, they discovered that for severely depressed patients not responding to medications, this could be an option.

Twenty-eight participants diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression were subjected to ketamine treatment for three weeks, including three to six infusions-each lasting for 40 minutes in the ECT room of Warenford hospital in the United Kingdom. Eighty milligrams of ketamine were administered during the three-week course of treatment. Memory tests were also conducted to test any cognitive decline following long-term depression, a common side-effect of this health issue.

For many patients, after the second infusion treatment and after three days of the third or sixth infusion, depression rates dropped by 50 percent for 29 percent of the patients. However, some did note feeling anxious regarding the treatments and some still expressed suicidal tendencies.

"Ketamine is a promising new antidepressant which works in a different way to existing antidepressants. We wanted to see whether it would be safe if given repeatedly, and whether it would be practical in an NHS setting. We especially wanted to check that repeated infusions didn't cause cognitive problems," said principal investigator Dr. Rupert McShane, via a press release.

As a total of 400 infusions have now been given to 45 patients, McShane notes that though the benefits of the drug are effective, they are often short-lived.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal  Journal of Psychopharmacology.