Ketamine News and Research

The mind-altering drug has been shown to help people suffering from anxiety and depression. But how it helps, who it will serve, and who will profit are open questions… I didn’t want to drink alcohol, or even coffee, out of a fear that the feeling would abandon me; I dreaded being thrown back into my ordinary mind. The feeling lasted a little more than two weeks, and then it went away. The memory of what it had felt like lingered a bit longer, and then it went away, too.

When my brother got his first pair of glasses, he marveled that he could see individual leaves on trees. Ketamine felt a lot like that. To be in awe of simple pleasures felt like reason enough to live, and I was overcome with a quiet revelation: this is what it means to be content. I began contemplating a return to school. In May 2021, 15 years after dropping out of high school, five years after beginning ketamine treatment, I graduated from college.

I know how fortunate I am. Ketamine doesn’t work for everyone, and for many, the treatment is financially prohibitive. As more stories like mine emerge, I hope to see that change, and that others will not have to give up on finding relief.

Ketamine treatment, in general, is for people suffering from serious mental illness who have tried other medications with little or no relief. It has been most widely studied in people with treatment-resistant depression and acute suicidality. It may also benefit patients with conditions such as PTSD, OCD, bipolar depression, anxiety and eating disorders. People with certain conditions such as psychosis generally are not candidates for therapeutic ketamine.

On Monday, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry of ketamine users at three clinics in Virginia showed significant reduction in symptoms of depression. The evaluation of more than 400 patients at three MindPeace ketamine clinics in Virginia showed that 72 percent of patients saw improvement in their mood and 38 percent were symptom-free after 10 infusions.

Ketamine, a substance traditionally used as an anesthetic, has been found to be beneficial for treating mental health issues including depression and anxiety.

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Pyschiatry revealed that people who received intravenous ketamine treatments showed clear improvement in their anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation symptoms.

Even though depression is a common and debilitating mental illness, the last groundbreaking medication released for it was Prozac, approved in 1987. Throughout the last 20 years, though, research scientists have discovered that ketamine, a common anesthetic and, at times, a recreational drug, is a rapid and effective medication for treatment-resistant depression. As we’re learning deeper about why, we turn specifically to its dissociative effects for clues….. One thing is for sure: Future research will further expose how ketamine works, and as these discoveries are examined, new and less-invasive medications could come to market and potentially improve the symptoms of those suffering from treatment-resistant depression. The difference could be life-altering.