Depression affects a lot of people and research into dealing with depression has taken on a lot of forms over the years. Recently there has been growing use of “party drugs” to treat those with depression. People with severe depression don’t react to treatments the same as others, which has led researchers to look for more diverse options.
Ketamine, used in veterinary clinics and in hospitals, has been used to treat depression and the results are rather impressive – 75% of people treated with ketamine showed positive results!
Since 2006, dozens of studies have reported that it can also reverse the kind of severe depression that traditional antidepressants often don’t touch. The momentum behind the drug has now reached the American Psychiatric Association, which, according to members of a ketamine task force, seems headed toward a tacit endorsement of the drug for treatment-resistant depression.
Experts are calling it the most significant advance in mental health in more than half a century. They point to studies showing ketamine not only produces a rapid and robust antidepressant effect; it also puts a quick end to suicidal thinking.
In Australia the RANZCP consider that ketamine, used with appropriate safeguards, is a ‘novel’, ‘innovative’ therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine here is mostly given orally or sublingually which a more practical and affordable method compared to the intravenous route and is able to be used by any psychiatrist as part of a comprehensive treatment program. Further information can be gleaned from the recently released book “Ketamine for Depression.”