Ketamine May Ease Depression By Acting Like an Opioid, Study Suggests

Ketamine, once known primarily as a club drug, has in recent years gained legitimacy among some scientific experts as potential therapy for hard-to-treat depression. It works faster than antidepressants but wears off fairly quickly, and the health consequences of taking ketamine over months and years is so far unknown. The drug is FDA-approved as an anesthetic, and several academic centers across the U.S. run ketamine clinics; private ketamine clinics run by doctors have also sprung up. But new research points to what could be a major drawback of the drug. It seems to behave like an opioid in the brain, which experts worry could set patients up for dependence. The small study, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, suggests that ketamine may work as an antidepressant by activating the body’s natural opioid system, which controls pain and reward responses. The results, the authors write in the study, “provide strong justification for further caution against widespread and repeated use of ketamine.” The study, which was led by researchers at Stanford University, was small and preliminary, and the results need to be replicated in future research. But if ketamine actually does work like an opioid, according to an accompanying editorial, patients who take the drug for depression could become addicted to or dependent on it, just as with other opioids. “We would hate to treat the depression and suicide epidemics by overusing ketamine, wh...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Drugs healthytime onetime Source Type: news