CARLY CASSELLA 13 AUGUST 2021
Oral ketamine, known both as an anesthetic and a recreational drug, has recently emerged as a highly promising, rapid treatment for severe depression.
Within hours, a single dose of the psychedelic substance has been shown to curb suicidal intent, and recent clinical trials suggest these effects work on two thirds of patients, lasting for up to several weeks before fading away.
Given the promising early results and the limits of currently available antidepressants, oral ketamine is now available as a nasal spray in the United States for those with intractable depression and chronic suicidal thoughts.
Yet despite the drug’s growing use nationwide, we still don’t really know the full extent of its antidepressant activity. Ketamine interacts with a range of receptors in the brain, but which are the ones that lead to anti-depressant effects?
Some scientists think ketamine’s therapeutic power relies on its influence over glutamate, a neurotransmitter that is secreted by the ends of certain neurons in the brain. But while ketamine appears to increase glutamate release in some parts of the brain in both mice and humans, in other parts of the mammalian brain, the drug seems to decrease this release.
“Elevated glutamate release has been linked to stress, depression and..
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