Is Ketamine the future of depression therapy?

The drugs currently available for depression therapy have their limitations. Most antidepressant drugs take at least a month to work, so people suffering from severe chronic depression must wait weeks for relief. There is hope for depression treatment. Consult the experts of the best addiction treatment center in Lahore for personalized and professional care. And that’s to say nothing of those experiencing short-term depression – for these folks, the antidepressant medications currently available aren’t much use at all. It should understand Link Between Depression and Porn Addiction for the best treatment of addiction because if you are in the depression, then there are chances of yours not getting rid of the porn addiction habit.

But researchers may have discovered the path to quick, effective depression therapy drugs. Soon, doctors can administer antidepressant medications that bring relief in hours or days, not weeks. The breakthrough comes from an unlikely source – the club drug, ketamine.

What Is Ketamine?

Ketamine belongs to a class of drugs known as dissociative anesthetics. There are many tips for getting rid of depression from professionals and the 5 steps to Fight the Depression are once explained. If you want to know this, then click on the link. It was developed in 1963 to replace PCP. Most of the ketamine sold on the streets and abused recreationally is diverted from veterinarians’ offices, where it’s used to sedate animals for surgery. Ketamine is also used as a human anesthetic.

Ketamine abusers like the drug for its alleged hallucinogenic effects and for the feeling of disassociation it causes. High doses of ketamine can be deadly.

Ketamine Used as Depression Therapy

A study published last month in the journal Biological Psychiatry suggests that ketamine, administered through the nostrils, can immediately relieve symptoms of severe depression and Anxiety Symptoms of ADHD in patients who have proved resistant to other depression treatments. The double-blind, crossover study saw researchers treat 20 patients with severe depression with either a 50mg dose of ketamine or salt water. The researchers measure the patient’s response to the treatment according to the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. Patients self-reported any changes in their feelings of anxiety or depression and their response to the medication.

Eight of the patients treated with ketamine were found to have demonstrated a measurable improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms within 24 hours of the treatment. Only one of the patients given saline showed any improvement. The patients were treated with either ketamine or saline for two days, receiving one daily dose.

Although ketamine is known for its dissociative effects and ability to raise blood pressure and heart rate, the researchers noted that these side effects were minimal in the patients receiving the drug for depression therapy. The researchers chose an intranasal means of administering the medication because of its effectiveness and ease. This non-invasive, effective method of administration could make patients who need the drug to relieve depression symptoms more likely to use it, the researchers believe.

Could Your Depression Therapy Include Ketamine?

The researchers concluded that ketamine was safe for depression treatment, but that doesn’t mean that the drug, which is already popular on the club scene and has a high potential for abuse, will become the new gold standard in depression treatment. Ketamine is too easy to abuse, many experts say, and its status as a club drug could give lawmakers and healthcare providers alike cause to hesitate in making it available to people who suffer from depression.

However, it’s not the ketamine itself but how it affects the depressed brain that has most experts intrigued. Ketamine works as a depression therapy by blocking the NMDA glutamate receptor, preventing norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine reuptake. These neurotransmitters are responsible for feelings of happiness, positivity, pleasure, and well-being; most antidepressants already in use for depression therapy work by preventing the reuptake, or breakdown, of one or two of these neurotransmitters in the brain. Ketamine’s ability to control the reuptake of all three at once makes it work so quickly.

Ketamine itself may not be administered to treat depression symptoms, but its mechanism of action could inspire mental health researchers to develop another drug that also works as quickly via the exact mechanism. Ideally, this drug would be easy to administer, would relieve even severe depression symptoms within a day or two, and would have few side effects and, crucially, little potential for abuse.

In the meantime, people who suffer from depression can still find relief with a combination of antidepressants and psychotherapy. While many people may not begin to experience an improvement in symptoms for several weeks after they start therapy, some experience relief sooner. If you or someone you love is struggling with depression, call 0300-7413639 for help.