Ketamine Improved Bipolar Depression Within Minutes, Study Suggests

Studies about ketamine have been rolling in over the past few years. Some important notes:<p>1. Almost all of these are looking at IV ketamine at very low doses (lower than anestheic or "recreational" dosing).<p>2. Like most of these trials, this is also a small trial (18 patients).<p>3. This was an adjunctive therapy, for patients who were on stable dosing of lithium or valproic acid which are first line for bipolar disorder.<p>Cool stuff, but preliminary at this point. Hopefully it will lead to options that are safer, more convenient, and with less abuse potential but maintain the rapid response that appears to be related to glutamatergic activity.

YMMV; Annecdotes != data; correlation != causation etc.<p>but I've known a lot of modest, moderate and heavy recreational ket users - It's been quite a popular recreational drug in the UK for about 15 years. I would perceive (being not a doctor or anything useful) that the proportion of them which are depressed in some way is a noticeably higher than the rest of the people I've ever met.<p>It's an addictive drug (perhaps not physically, but definitely behaviourally/psychologically). In my opinion it grossly interferes with peoples' ability to interact with those who don't partake. I find it difficult to recall a single example of its use improving someone's well-being - the converse in fact.<p>Anyway, just adding my observations/bit of life experience.

Heroin also improves depression within minutes. Ketamine is even more dangerous, and may cause severe cognitive difficulties with long-term use like other NMDA antagonists like ethanol and the benzodiazapenes (which, it should be noted, actually worsen depression in the long run).

Wow! This press release, on an important issue of treatment of a dangerous illness, triggers more than the usual number of warning signs<p><a href="http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html" rel="nofollow">http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html</a><p>of an overinterpreted study. I wish the researchers well. Other thoughtful comments here have already pointed out issues such as the very small sample size and limited follow-up given to the patients.

&#62; When the patients received ketamine, their depression symptoms significantly improved within 40 minutes, and remained improved over 3 days. Overall, 79% of the patients improved with ketamine, but 0% reported improvement when they received placebo.<p>So they only checked up on them for three days. Bipolar depression is generally chronically recurring. Sufferers will feel "better" for a short period of time, and then slip back into depressive mind-states.<p>This would be much more interesting if it was a longer-reaching study.

Wow - that is exciting and readily applicable research which can save many lives in a short amount of time.

Hard to be depressed when Jesus got you....

<p><pre><code> Study Suggests </code></pre> Let's talk when it reads "study proves . . ."