Ketamine is quite an interesting substance from a social perspective. Developed by Big Pharma as a powerful anesthetic for surgery-induction, it started to developed a name for itself recreationally among the fringe communities somewhere between the shamanistic-psychedelic mindset and the socially perceived drug addict.

Taken at doses lower than its anesthetic-qualitative administration, ketamine is a powerful dissociative with pharmacological effects like fellow dissociatives, DXM and PCP. For brief clarification, DXM is the “cough suppressant” chemical of cough medicine that produces intense pharmacological effects in doses much larger than the over-the-counter recommendation, and has received preliminary studies for its own possible therapeutic potentials similar to classical psychedelics–and everyone knows what PCP is, and that is has no therapeutic potential whatsoever.

In regards to ketamine, its prescription legalization has given human society the ability to explore both its therapeutic capabilities in clinical settings, as well as the gritty side of black-market sold ketamine overdoses, nasty addictions, and a reported blow to the kidneys, among other lasting effects from chronic usage. However, with the ancient eastern reminder of “Everything in Moderation,” physician-facilitated, low-dose ketamine infusion treatment has become a safe, well-researched and effective treatment for persistent depression like anhedonia. The effects will vary slightly from person to person as will any substance, but the doses are administered to be non-psychoactive, and the extent of a “high” that a person may feel from the infusion could be sedation, dizziness, general peace-of-mind, or sometimes even euphoric self realizations. A video discussing ketamine infusions can be viewed here:

Recent scientific reports released in 2015 by the Journal of Psychopharmacology further reiterate the therapeutic capabilities of low-dose ketamine infusion in patients with persistent depression. Additionally, findings also concluded that ketamine infusion works more effectively in the brain the smaller a person’s hippocampus is. The hippocampus is the center of memory in the brain, and hippocampal shrinkage has been shown to correlate with chronic depression and typically occurs due to adverse brain development during childhood.

“Psychedelic” properties of ketamine aside, since it is a legal chemical, it seems to be a much more effective and safer depressant treatment alternative to traditional SSRI‘s that are now being prescribed by the millions, which are now showing to have quite questionable results, since serotonin uptake is, neurochemically speaking, crucial for a uniform self-identity. Low-dose ketamine infusions at clinical center, aimed for treating depression, can be recommended by a practicing physician.

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdVrTyOKFyY, http://jop.sagepub.com/content/29/5/591.abstract, http://jop.sagepub.com/content/29/5/596.abstract, http://www.ketamineinfusioncenters.com/