Researchers find that an anesthetic drug can be effective in preventing suicide and lifting the mood of depressed patients.
Ketamine, an anesthetic drug that is used for recreational proposes can also prevent suicide and lift the mood of depressed patients, according to researchers from the University of New South Wales.
Also known as "special K", this drug has many advantages over other anti- depressants For one, its effect is immediate while other drugs may take up to eight weeks to provide results.
"This is a game-changer in treating depression," said UNSW Professor Colleen Loo, lead author of the study, in a press statement. "The real advantage here is that the effect is almost instantaneous and that it appears to work on the majority of patients. This could be of real benefit if a patient is suicidal, as it could help yank them out of that really dark place."
Another advantage of ketamine is that while finding the right drug for a patient is a matter of trial and error, special K can be used in combination with other anti-depressants, which may still be useful in helping maintain sleep and appetite.
"Ketamine powerfully reverses structural changes in the brain that occur when someone is depressed. In a sense, the treatment is repairing or reversing those changes," Professor Loo said.
Unfortunately, the effect is only temporary. In a small clinic trial, three out of four depressed patients benefited from only one session of ketamine treatment, though they all relapsed after a week. Hallucination was one of the common side effects of the drug. Loo suggests lowering the drug dosage to deal with this problem.
"We would like to do further work in this area to advance our early results," said Loo. "We think there are so many people who could benefit relatively quickly, if this work is funded."
Findings were published in the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry. The study was funded by a Research Fellowship Grant from the NSW Institute of Psychiatry.
