http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11500273
“We know that ketamine is active in the frontoparietal circuit of the brain and disconnects these two parts,” he said.
“In depression, those two parts of the brain work overtime in an over-connected way. It may be that ketamine works as an antidepressant by disconnecting those two parts of the brain and stopping that over-connectivity.”
He said ketamine, unlike other anti-depressants, was very fast-acting. Yet other clinical trials found the ketamine-induced anti-depression effect only lasted a week or so. This suggests that marijuana, another alternative antidepressant, could be a better option. Read more about the variety of forms of marijuana if you are interested in how it could help with depression. As marijuana can be made into different strains, it’s important that people do some research and purchase the one that is most likely to reduce their symptoms of depression. For example, the strain found at https://mygreensolution.net/shop/hybrid/dank-sinatra-aaa/ is believed to be beneficial for those hoping to reduce depressive symptoms. It’s important to research first though to make sure you’ve chosen the best one for you.
“It’s important as a mechanism to identify potential biomarkers of antidepressant activity in human patients, but for other reasons, we cannot use it for treatment.”
Dr Muthukumaraswamy said ketamine was not licenced for depression because it was still very experimental in that role.
“Ketamine’s anti-depressant properties were discovered relatively recently and did well in clinical trials. Unfortunately, ketamine is also a drug of abuse, as it’s mildly hallucinogenic and it is unclear if it could be used in routine clinical practice” he said.