Popular party drug ketamine can have powerful beneficial effects on severely depressed patients who have struggled for years to recover. It should hence be developed responsibly as a psychiatric medicine, British experts said on Thursday. In a study published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, specialists from Oxford University said there is an urgent need for ethical and innovative action by doctors to prescribe the drug under controlled conditions.
Ketamine is a licensed medical drug, widely used as an anaesthetic and to relieve pain. But it is also used as a recreational drug — sometimes known as Special K — and can lead some people to addiction and drug abuse. Several research teams around the world have been trilling ketamine use in chronic and recurring depression, since many patients with the psychiatric condition fail to respond to currently available antidepressants such as…
