Ketamine for Depression: The Most Important Advance in Field in 50 Years?

[dkf]

In any given year, 7% of adults suffer from major depression, and at least 1 in 10 youth will reckon with the disorder at some point during their teenage years. But about 20% of these cases will not respond to current treatments; for those that do, relief may take weeks to months to come.

There is one treatment, however, that works much faster: the anesthetic and “club drug” ketamine. It takes effect within hours. A single dose of ketamine produces relief of depression that has been shown in studies to last for up to 10 days; it also appears to reduce symptoms of bipolar disorder and suicidal thoughts. Now, a new research review published in Science calls the discovery of these effects of ketamine, “”arguably the most important discovery in half a century” of depression research.

Ketamine doesn’t work the way traditional antidepressants do. Many such drugs affect levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, and while the idea that depression is caused by low levels of serotonin or an “imbalance” of other key neurotransmitters has been firmly fixed in the popular imagination, scientists have known for decades that it can’t be that simple. For one, antidepressant drugs change the brain’s neurotransmitter levels immediately, yet depression doesn’t lift for several weeks, a delay that could be potentially deadly.

Another theory is that depression is caused not by neurotransmitter problems per se, but by damage to brain cells themselves in key regions critical to controlling mood. This idea fits nicely with evidence that stress can cause depression, since high levels of stress hormones can cause an overrelease of a neurotransmitter called glutamate, which damages cells and affects exactly the same suspected areas. More support for this theory comes from the fact that all known antidepressants increase cell growth in these areas too, providing an alternate explanation for their therapeutic results.

http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/05/ketamine-for-depression-the-most-important-advance-in-field-in-50-years/

[Kurska]

1. Even better, there is a widely available chemical analog for Ketamine called MXE

It is a research chemical "designer" drug that is meant to produce all the Ketamine like effects without absolutely destroying your liver in the process.

If ketamine is effective for depression, MXE will be twice the drug for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methoxetamine

[Duer 157099]

5. Looks like someone else thinks so too

Med Hypotheses. 2012 Oct;79(4):504-7. Epub 2012 Jul 21.

Methoxetamine: From drug of abuse to rapid-acting antidepressant.
Coppola M, Mondola R.
Source

Department of Addiction, ASL CN2, Viale Coppino 46, 12051 Alba (CN), Italy.
Abstract

Methoxetamine is a dissociative anaesthetic showing pharmacodynamic similarities with its analogue ketamine, a medication with demonstrated rapid-acting antidepressant effects. Like ketamine and other arylcyclohexylamine compounds, methoxetamine is thought to be both a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist and a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Furthermore, it acts as an agonist at dopamine D2, serotonin 5HT2, muscarinic cholinergic, sigma-1, opioid mu and k receptors. The hypothesis is that methoxetamine can produce rapid antidepressant effects in patients with resistant and non-resistant unipolar and bipolar depression.

[MADem]

2. Who knows the answers to my fogie questions?

Is that the stuff they called Special K a few years back?

Is it a legitimate drug--one that had a purpose of sorts once upon a time--or was it invented solely for amusement and these others applications have been subsequently investigated? I see where they call it an "anesthetic" and it is FDA approved, but what in hell did they use if for before they discovered this aspect?

This bit is fascinating:

...It didn’t seem likely that a drug could repair cells within hours, but new research explored in a review paper in the journal Science suggests just that. Ketamine rapidly spurs the growth of new synapses, the connections between brain cells, and is associated with “reversal of the atrophy caused by chronic stress,” the authors write.

Unfortunately, the hallucinogenic and often outright unpleasant effects of ketamine mean that it can’t be used in the same way typical antidepressants are, and fears about its potential for misuse also hamper its development. Researchers are frantically trying to develop compounds that have the same effects as ketamine without producing a “high.”

In the meanwhile, however, ketamine is already FDA approved, so there’s nothing stopping psychiatrists from trying it and patients from asking for access to it in emergency situations when all else has failed. However, it must be given by infusion and carefully monitored (nasal sprays are being developed and there is an oral form that has some effects, but is not optimally absorbed), and the drug impairs patients for hours. Still, it relieves depression for at least several days: if there’s a choice between being entirely dysfunctional seven days a week or only out of commission for one or two, many people would accept that trade-off.



Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/05/ketamine-for-depression-the-most-important-advance-in-field-in-50-years/#ixzz28aO4TTPu

[dkf]

3. Apparently so...

http://m.cbsnews.com/storysynopsis.rbml?pageType=health&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57527115/ketamine-may-rapidly-treat-depression-scientists-say/&catid=57527115

Ketamine is not only an animal tranquilizer or club drug known as Special K, but new research explains it may be an effective way to treat depression instantly.

[Kurska]

4. Question answers

1. Yes same thing
2. It was and continues to be used as a legitimate anesthetic. It is mostly used in the veterinary practice, not in humans.

[MADem]

6. Thanks! Those poor animals!!!! Does the stuff make 'em 'trip' or what, I wonder? nt

[HiPointDem]

8. it's been around since the 60s & in street use since the 70s.

"K-hole" is a slang term for the subjective state of dissociation from the body commonly experienced after sufficiently high doses of the dissociative anesthetic ketamine (75-125 mg IM). This state may mimic the phenomenology of catatonic schizophrenia,[1] out-of-body experiences (OBEs) or near-death experiences (NDEs),[2] and is often accompanied by feelings of extreme derealization, depersonalization and disorientation, as well as temporary memory loss and vivid hallucinations.

Ketamine and its subjective effects were related by Timothy Leary to the eighth and final circuit of his eight-circuit model of consciousness, along with DMT and high doses of LSD (1,000+ µg). The experience of the K-hole may also be similar to experiences brought on by ingesting Salvia divinorum, which, like ketamine, is a dissociative exhibiting atypically psychedelic effects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-hole

I don't think i'd want to use it for depression. I think it's more the bad effects & limited potential of 2nd-generation anti-depressants are coming to the fore & the pharmafolk are searching around for the third generation.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. Yes, but it's anti-depressant effects wear off in a few days

Some people who have taken it in studies have ended up with worse depression than before, because they experienced how good "well" felt and then had to go through getting depressed again. It does sound exciting though. I hope they can find something that can be taken regularly without the side effects (hallucinations, etc.) I've struggled with depression for over 30 years. It's a bitch.

[helloyou]

9. Spam deleted by azurnoir (MIR Team)

[HiPointDem]

10. ecstacy & amphetamine make you feel better quick, too. soma here we come.