Apparently there is a new trend in science: proving what hippies, ravers and EDM fans have been telling people for years.

One approach has simply been to shout down the drug-addled kids and ignore everything they have to say as they are shoved into a cage with actual criminals. Another approach is simply to test what they are saying and see if it’s true.

Thankfully, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have been taking a closer look at ketamine and just why the drug works as an antidepressant.

The very idea that scientists would investigate these properties in the first place is controversial. Drug war takfiris only know that it has been used recreationally for psychedelic properties – something the government, for reasons I will let readers speculate on, seems absolutely terrified of.

Brain-altering chemicals, according the government should never be a choice left up to an individual. They should be handed out by authoritarians in lab coats even if it is against the patient’s will. At least the government is consistent – individual choice doesn’t play a role.

Obviously it is an issue of which brains should be altered and which brains shouldn’t that is in question, but I digress.

This new study from Peter O’Donnell Junior Brain Institute is looking at what proteins in the brain that ketamine targets to produce its effects.

As Eurekalert reports:

The study published in Nature shows that ketamine blocks a protein responsible for a range of normal brain functions. The blocking of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor creates the initial antidepressant reaction, and a metabolite of ketamine is responsible for extending the duration of the effect.

The blocking of the receptor also induces many of ketamine’s hallucinogenic responses. The drug – used for decades as an anesthetic – can distort the senses and impair coordination.

But if taken with proper medical care, ketamine may help severely depressed or suicidal patients in need of a quick, effective treatment, Dr. Monteggia said.

Studies have shown ketamine can stabilize patients within a couple of hours, compared to other antidepressants that often take a few weeks to produce a response – if a response is induced at all.

“Patients are demanding ketamine, and they are willing to take the risk of potential side effects just to feel better,” Dr. Monteggia said. “This demand is overriding all the questions we still have about ketamine. How often can you have an infusion? How long can it last? There are a lot of aspects regarding how ketamine acts that are still unclear.”

Dr. Monteggia’s lab continues to answer these questions as UT Southwestern conducts two clinical trials with ketamine, including an effort to administer the drug through a nasal spray as opposed to intravenous infusions.

The results of these trials will have major implications for the millions of depressed patients seeking help, in particular those who have yet to find a medication that works.

A major national study UT Southwestern led more than a decade ago (STAR*D) yielded insight into the prevalence of the problem: Up to a third of depressed patients don’t improve upon taking their first medication, and about 40 percent of people who start taking antidepressants stop taking them within three months.

Ketamine, due to the potential side effects, is mainly being explored as a treatment only after other antidepressants have failed. But for patients on the brink of giving up, waiting weeks to months to find the right therapy may not be an option.

“Ketamine opens the door to understanding how to achieve rapid action and to stabilize people quickly. Because the (NMDA) receptor that is the target of ketamine is not involved in how other classical serotonin-based antidepressants work, our study opens up a new avenue of drug discovery,” said Dr. Monteggia, who holds the Ginny and John Eulich Professorship in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Ketamine may provide a new avenue in which depression can be treated and we applaud the scientists for at least being open to the idea. Although we should point out that when one talks about depression there are many issues at play that do not always have a pharmaceutical solution.

To be clear, ketamine has a number of side-effects and we would certainly never suggest that everyone reading the article step away from the computer and k-hole.

But we would, however, unequivocally suggest that the reader have the option of doing so. We encourage more study of ketamine and substances like it and we encourage readers to exercise extreme caution in taking any substances, pharmaceutical or otherwise.

But we also warn that armed men in costumes smashing down doors, pointing guns at children and stomping parakeets to prevent adults from consuming substances is vastly more dangerous than ketamine or any other drug.

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