Approximately 280 million people in the world suffer for depression. Despite this, the disorder remains poorly explained and is often difficult to treat. Ketamine could offer an innovative approach.
In a new study, a single infusion of the antidepressant – along with repeated exposure to positive imagery – significantly reduced symptoms in depressed patients in a clinical trial.
Now restrictions are easing, some people who have not used alcohol or other drugs recently may start to use them again, and need to be aware of their reduced tolerance.
Drugs like ketamine can relieve depression symptoms, including suicidal thoughts, within hours, but they also carry risks that patients need to understand.
Over-activity in the brain’s subgenual anterior cingulate cortex is likely to be one cause of depression and anxiety.
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Ketamine and other psychedelics are being licensed for medical use – two experts advise how to minimise harm for users.
Ketamine is effective for those who do not respond to traditional anti-depressants. It also shows promise for the treatment of PTSD and bipolar disorder.
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A safety committee convened by the FDA has declared esketamine safe for severe depression. But isn’t this drug the same as ketamine, an illegal street drug? A medical anthropologist explains.
We’ve got better at managing the health risks of traditional drugs of abuse, but novel psychoactive substances, or ‘legal highs’, are a dangerous unknown.
Psychedelic drugs have inspired great songs and works of art. But they may also have potential for treating disease like depression and PTSD by helping to regrow damaged regions of the brain.
Young people have reported cultural gains from drug use, such as strengthening social ties and gaining access to social networks.
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A new study among gay and bisexual men living with HIV found those who were occasional or regular users of party drugs reported significantly better social outcomes than non-users.
A small number of people, who probably use other party drugs, use ketamine recreationally.
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At higher doses ketamine is used to induce a trance-like state, sedate people with burns or other traumatic injuries, or as an anaesthetic to perform short operations.
LSD causes euphoria, increased body temperature and hallucinations where some or all of the senses are distorted.
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During the 1950s and 1960s, LSD was used more for psychotherapy than recreation. Between 1950 and 1965, many were treated with LSD for alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, autism and homosexuality.
Ketamine crystals could help depression, too.
michel1972
The close of 2013 saw a drugs bust of cinematic proportions in China. Part of Operation Thunder, more than 3,000 armed police with a cavalry of helicopters, motorboats and police dogs busted the village…
Except for medical reasons or if you’re a horse.
The Justified Sinner
Sometimes it seems you’ve only got to turn around and there is another drug in the news. Now we are told that ketamine should be upgraded from being a Class C drug to a Class B drug. Why does this matter…
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry; Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine; Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis