 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Writing in the July 23 online edition of Biological Psychiatry, the researchers cautioned that ketamine itself is not appropriate as an antidepressant because of its side effects, which include hallucinations. However, understanding how ketamine operates will help with the development of faster-acting antidepressants, they reported.
Current antidepressants may take weeks or months to have an effect, leaving people suffering with depressive disorders frustrated and at risk for worsening symptoms, including suicide.
"In any other illness of depression's magnitude, patients aren't expected to just accept that their treatments won't start helping them for weeks or months. The value of our research on compounds like ketamine is that it tells us where to look for more precise targets for new kinds of medications that can close the gap," said NIMH Director Dr. Thomas R. Insel. "We're making tremendous progress."
Text Continues Below
By aiming pharmaceutical development at more specific molecular targets such as NMDA and AMPA, scientists may be able to reduce the wait for antidepressants to take effect. The researchers tested the effectiveness of compounds similar to ketamine on the NMDA receptor and found a similarly speedy relief of depression.
Ketamine is currently approved for use as an anesthetic, but its use is limited due to hallucinations during recovery. The doses used in this study were much smaller than the amount approved for anesthetic use.
More information
To learn more about depression, visit the National Institute of Mental Health.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
-- Madeline Vann
|
.gif)
