A new study suggests that ketamine may be used by people wanting to reduce their symptoms of depression in less than 24 hours, according to Daily Mail.
Ketamine is an anesthesia commonly used on veterinary medicine. However, the researchers flund that it had effectively reduced depression on about 60 percent of the participants. They also ruled out that the effects are noticeable in less than 24 hours which is so much better than the anti-depressants prescribed by doctors wherein the effects would just kick in four to six weeks.
Dr Sanjay Mathew, lead author of the study from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and his colleagues recruited 73 participants to test the effectivity of ketamine. Forty-eight of them were injected with very low dosages of ketamine while the rest were given an anesthetic medication midazolam.
The researchers observed than 64 percent of those given ketamine improved within 24 hours while only 28 percent on the other group improved.
"Through this study, we’ve now confirmed in an optimized trial design that ketamine does have robust and rapid antidepressant effects. All previous studies of ketamine have compared it to saline, an inert placebo without physical or psychological reactions," Mathew told the Daily Mail.
The researchers admitted that ketamine has side effects such as visual disturbances, confusion, palpitation, nausea, drowsiness, and worst hypertension and abnormal movements.
Mathew believes that their study is the first to compare ketamine to another drug that has similar properties.
Those injected with ketamine continued to benefit from the drug but the effects began to decrease after six days. However, some of them were able to extend the effects for an additional 28 days.
Despite the positive result of the study, researchers admitted that they will need additional research before recommending ketamine for clinical use. They still need to identify the best dose to minimize the negative side effects without affecting its efficiency in reducing depression.
