Used in pediatrics, veterinary care or even misused as a recreational drug, ketamine could have promising effects on certain forms of severe depression, according to a new study.
French researchers from the Paris Brain Institute have identified one of the mechanisms explaining the effect of ketamine as an antidepressant.
Ketamine, typically used as an anesthetic, has been given to patients with severe resistant depression. A total of 26 patients with severe resistant depression and 30 healthy control participants participated in the research.
“This treatment led patients to exhibit a greater ability to overcome negative beliefs about themselves and the world when researchers presented them with positive information,” the study, published in the journal, found. JAMA Psychiatry.
About a third of people with depression fail to respond to most prescribed antidepressants, leading to a diagnosis of treatment-resistant depression.
These results open new therapeutic avenues for the management of mood disorders resistant to antidepressants.
While conventional antidepressant treatments take time to be effective (on average three weeks), ketamine has a rapid antidepressant effect, just a few hours after its administration. The mechanisms associated with this fast-acting antidepressant effect are still unknown.