Ketamine, an NMDA receptor
antagonist that is used for the induction of general anesthesia in medicine and
as a recreational drug due to its dissociative and sedative effects, is known
for producing a broad range of effects on the human body.
Depression, on the other hand,
affects roughly 10% of Americans each year, and it is estimated that
approximately 17% of the United States population will suffer from a major
depressive episode at some point in their life. Depression has been ranked as
the leading cause of disability in the United States, with over $40 billion
being spent each year on lost work productivity and medical treatment related
to this illness.
This being said, it is difficult to imagine an anesthetic drug such as ketamine playing a role in mental health, but many past studies have shown that it has been effective in treating depression in patients who have not responded to anti-depressants. Recently, however, Yale scientists have explained the link between ketamine and relief of depression. In their studies, Yale researchers show that in a series of steps ketamine triggers the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which stimulates the growth of synapses that were damaged due to chronic stress and depression.
Despite all of this new evidence,
using ketamine to treat depression might not be a good idea. Although many
antidepressants have a broad range of unintended and harmful side effects,
including even increasing the
intensity of a patient’s depression, ketamine still may not be the safer
alternative. Ketamine is a highly addictive substance, and in high doses can
produce severe psychosis. Long-term use can lead to a broad array of
life-threatening problems from irreversible bladder damage to extreme memory
and dissociative problems.
The significance of a scientific
discovery like this lies in paving the way for future research on this topic.
Current antidepressants can take months to start to improve the symptoms of
depression and don’t even work for a third of administered patients. Since
ketamine works on an entirely different type of neurotransmitter system, and in
a much quicker way, new research on developing drugs that replicate the effects
of ketamine can drastically improve the lives of millions.
For now, we have to deal with the
limitations the drug presents. Standard antidepressants take far too long for
someone in crisis. Depression is a disease that flares up without warning
sometimes. An emergency treatment for acute suicidal depression could be an
incredible tool. Ketamine could be possibly used to save lives and money until
research on the drug paves the way for an efficient and pain-free way of
treating the mental illness that has plagued researchers and millions of
Americans for decades.
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