Ketamine

At lower doses, ketamine has shown potential to help with pain, depression, and other mental health issues. Upon taking ketamine, the effects can be felt immediately. This is opposed to other medications, such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), that may be used to treat depression. While the SSRIs need time to build up in your brain, ketamine will begin to affect the neurotransmitter activity in your brain once administered. Today, SSRIs (drugs that increase serotonin levels) rank among the most prescribed psychiatric medicines. Serotonin is thought to increase the sense of well-being. SSRIs have had negative side effects, however, sometimes increasing the risk of suicide in some patients, diminishing libido in others, and often taking weeks to work. But the major problem with SSRIs and the other antidepressants is that, as a group, they fail to help about one-third of patients who try them.

This is why there’s so much excitement around ketamine. It offers relief to many patients who previously didn’t respond to anything. When it works, the drug acts within hours, not weeks, which makes it especially promising for patients at risk of suicide. And because it targets a different neurotransmitter system (not serotonin but glutamate) it’s giving scientists new insight into the biology of depression and other mental health disorders. See how ketamine can help with different disorders.