The well-known anesthetic ketamine brings new hope for depressed people. The drug, which has been used in anesthesia for decades, can alleviate the symptoms of severe depression even in therapy-resistant patients - the high success rates and the rapid response to the infusions are very surprising for both experts and those affected.
According to estimates by the World Health Organization (2004), 151 million people worldwide are affected by depression, and the number is rising.
The causes are manifold and the disease affects those affected extremely in their everyday lives - in many cases, depression leads to thoughts of suicide or suicide. Unfortunately, the current therapies cannot help everyone. Almost all antidepressants are based on a similar mechanism of action, so changing the preparation often does not bring about any improvement. Many patients are therefore looking for an alternative therapy with conventional drugs.
For patients who react to common antidepressants, the effects of these drugs can be life-changing in positive ways. Patients who, for reasons that are not yet known, do not have a sufficient effect, may now benefit from the positive effects of ketamine.
Ketamine has been used as an intravenous anesthetic since the 1970s, and it is still used in anesthesiology today.
In 2006, Carlos Zarate and his colleagues from the American National Institute for Mental Health, the world's largest research center for mental disorders, reported their results in a group of 18 depressed patients. One day after a single intravenous dose of ketamine, 71% of their patients had a positive response to their depressive symptoms and 29% were completely better.
The success in the placebo group, however, was zero. All the more fascinating is the fact that all test persons had previously tried at least two conventional antidepressants without success.
Since then, interest in studying the antidepressant properties of ketamine has increased tremendously. In recent years, there have been numerous studies with people who suffered from treatment-resistant depression. With only one exception, all studies have confirmed the effectiveness of ketamine as an antidepressant.
A high percentage of the test persons consistently showed a rapid effect on the symptoms, which, however, lasted for different lengths of time. Ketamine has also been shown to be useful in treating both unipolar depression and bipolar disorder without increasing the risk of mania in the latter.
No serious side effects were reported in any of the studies. Mild side effects were observed, but these did not persist after the drug was discontinued.
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Experts consider the effect of the "dissociation" that occurs during treatment to be essential because it contributes to the antidepressant effect.
Some important questions currently remain open and are being investigated in ongoing studies. For example, it is not clear how the antidepressant effect can be maintained over a longer period of time. One study has already reported the effectiveness of repeated doses. Others deal with strategies that bridge the gap to daily oral use, as is the case with traditional antidepressants.
The application in practice shows that the sustainability of the antidepressant effect varies from person to person.
However, based on previous experience, it can be assumed that in patients who respond to ketamine, an improvement in the depressive symptoms lasts up to several weeks, in some cases even up to several months.
Despite the open questions, it seems clear that ketamine will establish itself as a viable and long-awaited new treatment for depression. Specialized medical centers like TMS Brain & Health Ketamine are already offering this therapy for patients.
For an area that has been in the dark for decades, this is a welcome ray of hope for all concerned.
So that's all about ketamine, and how it can be helpful in curing depression.
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