The Drug Called Ketamine Can Reduce Depression And Suicidal Thoughts Within Hours
Up to one-third of the drug helps negate suicidal thoughts
Commonly recognised as a party drug, Ketamine has been recently identified as a promising anti-depressant.
In fact, a low dosage of ketamine is more effective than a commonly used sedatives as they help alleviate such thoughts must faster than anything else out there, claims a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
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The study carried out at the Columbia University medical centre and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, discovered that ketamine¡¯s anti-suicidal effect occurred within hours after its administration.
The results suggested that ketamine's effect on depression accounted for approximately one-third of its effect on suicidal thoughts, suggesting the treatment has a specific anti-suicidal effect.
Lead author Michael Grunebaum said there is a critical window in which depressed patients who are suicidal need rapid relief to prevent self-harm.
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"Suicidal, depressed patients need treatments that are rapidly effective in reducing suicidal thoughts when they are at highest risk. Currently, there is no such treatment for rapid relief of suicidal thoughts in depressed patients," Grunebaum added.
Most antidepressant trials have excluded patients with suicidal thoughts and behaviour, limiting data on the effectiveness of antidepressants in this population.
"This study shows that ketamine offers promise as a rapidly acting treatment for reducing suicidal thoughts in patients with depression," Dr. Grunebaum noted.
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The team analysed 80 depressed adults with clinically significant suicidal thoughts and were randomly assigned to receive an infusion of low-dose ketamine or midazolam, a sedative.
The findings indicated that within 24 hours, the ketamine group had a clinically significant reduction in suicidal thoughts that was greater than with the midazolam group.
The improvement in suicidal thoughts and depression in the ketamine group appeared to persist for up to six weeks.
Those in the ketamine group also had greater improvement in overall mood, depression and fatigue compared with the midazolam group.
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Additional research to evaluate ketamine's antidepressant and anti-suicidal effects may pave the way for the development of new antidepressant medications, the researchers stated.