Latest Study Shows Ketamine Could Be Beneficial For Treating Depression And Suicidal Thoughts

Ketamine-based nasal spray shows promising results for the fast treatment of massive depression symptomatology and suicidal thoughts. The research was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Even if ketamine is an anesthetic used in animals and it’s also known as a party drug, it seems that it holds an excellent improvement potential when it’s used for combating depression symptoms in the first 24 hours.

Ketamine is surrounded by a negative reputation

The substance gained its lousy fame after becoming a popular street drug that offers a hallucinatory trancelike high effect. Partygoers have been abusing this drug a lot, and this is why it became a tabu subject.

Not many people know that the drug is actually licensed medicine as we stated above and it’s used to prevent pain during surgery, especially in animals nowadays.

Ketamine could be useful for treating depression

Researchers at Janssen Research and Development in New Jersey and experts at the Yale School of Medicine found out that ketamine has the potential to treat depression.

It’s been revealed that this is a good anti-depressant, but there are required more clinical trials in order to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to become a psychiatric medication.

Here’s what the study found

During the study, 68 people with suicidal thoughts have been treated with anti-depressants. Half of them also received intranasal esketamine which is a substance from the ketamine molecule. They received it twice a week, and the other half of the people were given just a placebo.

Results showed that after only four hours since receiving the treatment, people who got esketamine showed massive improvements and their depression levels and suicidal thoughts were definitely reduced. People who got placebo showed better results after 25 days.

The results of the study show that the ketamine nasal spray can be a fast and effective treatment for depression especially for patients who are displaying severe depression symptoms and are at higher risk for suicide, this could be a colossal discovery considering that most anti-depressive medication takes about four weeks to rigger good results.

Rada Mateescu

I have been blogging and posting articles for over eight years, but my passion for writing dates back in 2000. I am especially enthusiastic about technology, science, and health-related issues. When I’m not researching and writing the latest news, I’m either watching sci-fi and horror movies or checking out places worth visiting and building deep memories for later in life. I believe in empathy and continually improving myself.