Depression: 4-week ketamine injections prove effective
Share on Pinterest Inexpensive ketamine injections are effective against treatment-resistant depression, study finds. Image credit: Pansfun Images/Stocksy. Clinical trial participants who had treatment-resistant depression received injections of racemic ketamine or a placebo twice a week over a month . Approximately one in five participants achieved total remission of their symptoms with ketamine, while almost a third saw their symptoms improve by at least 50%. The study was a collaboration between six clinical mood disorder centers in Australia and one in New Zealand . A growing number of researchers are looking at psychedelics, a range of substances that can alter consciousness, as a possible treatment for depression. Many are interested, specifically, in ketamine, a drug that has been used as an anesthetic for decades. The British Journal of Psychiatry recently published a paper on a double-blind trial out of Australia that compared the ability of racemic ketamine to a placebo in ...