New publications
Ketamine has proven to be an extremely fast and effective antidepressant drug
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
A drug and anesthetic, ketamine has proven to be an extremely fast-acting and effective antidepressant, reducing depression and suppressing suicidal tendencies in patients with manic-depressive psychosis within an hour.
Everyone knows that bipolar disorder (manic-depressive psychosis) is characterized by alternations of opposite affective states, manic and depressive. Depression can be so long and deep that it can lead to suicide. Of course, patients are prescribed antidepressants for such cases, but, unfortunately, modern drugs do not have an immediate effect, and a person must take them for weeks to feel the effect. In addition, different antidepressants work differently, and the patient is sometimes forced to experiment with drugs for a long time to understand what is right for him.
In an article published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, a team of researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health (USA) reports that they have found a quick and effective remedy for depressive periods during bipolar disorder. Its name is ketamine, an anesthetic and dissociative drug.
The patients were given a single dose of ketamine and then monitored for several days. It turned out that the symptoms of depression noticeably weakened within the first 40 minutes and remained at a reduced level for three more days. Ketamine helped 79% of the patients who took it (while no one in the control placebo group showed any changes in their condition).
In addition, ketamine significantly reduced suicidal tendencies, which was also observed within the first hour after administration.
According to doctors, such a speed of action is unimaginable for conventional antidepressants, so ketamine will most likely soon enter everyday clinical practice in this capacity. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that a single injection was enough to produce a noticeable positive effect; for a substance with such an ambiguous reputation, this is significant. On the other hand, the mechanism of action of ketamine is known, so it may be possible to create an analogue that will have an antidepressant effect without any dubious narcotic side effects.
[