Ketamine's Possible Use in Fighting Depression

          Researchers from Yale and the National Institue of Mental Health have found that ketamine, an FDA-approved anesthetic and popular club drug, could possibly be used to fight depression much more quickly than current antidepressants.  They found that ketamine appears to create a rapid burst in new connections between nerve cells in areas of the brain involved in emotion and mood.  This quick increase has been shown to combat the loss of synaptic connections that cause depression and also appears to reverse deficits caused by stress.  Research has shown that ketamine seems to reverse depression in hours, compared to weeks with traditional antidepressants.  However, ketamine also causes hallucinations (thus why it' a popular club drug) which poses a problem with its use as an antidepressant.  Researchers are currently trying to produce drugs that work like ketamine, but without the hallucinations.  Several preliminary alternative drugs have already been tested in people, and one of these drugs, GLYX-13, is already moving towards FDA approval.
          This article interested me because I find the possibility of a new way to combat depression very exciting.  It is also weird, but cool, that ketamine, a drug used in clubs to escape reality, can be used to better reality for depressed patients.  The possibility of a ketamine based antidepressant that works in hours instead of weeks could be a huge game changer in the fight against depression.

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