Night club drug could ease depression: scientists

[flashl]

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have unraveled how a horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic night club drug known as "Special K" can ease depression, researchers said on Friday.

Ketamine, which can also cause feelings of detachment, could pave the way for new treatments for people suffering from depression, the researchers added.

Their study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found ketamine restores to normal the orbifrontal cortex, an area of the brain located above the eyes that is overactive in depressed people.

...

In their study, Deakin and his team gave intravenous ketamine to 33 healthy male volunteers and took minute-by-minute brain scans to see what was happening as the drug took effect.

Reuters

[NightWatcher]

1. everybody on the dance floor

[Schema Thing]

2. I read something about this a year or so ago... a study

found that very small doses (small enough not to be hallucinogenic or dissociative) reversed depression. The results were so dramatic that it sounded too good to be true.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I wonder how it is for bipolar depression

[Crunchy Frog]

4. Ketamine, a veterinary drug.

At one time I had access to it, when working in wildlife rehab. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I hope they can tweak it enough to make it useful as an antidepressant without the nasty side effects, since I have treatment resistant depression.