Some scientists have called the drug's impact "the most important discovery in half a century."
It seems that ketamine's uses extend beyond being a party drug, with some researchers hailing its apparent impact as a quick depression fix as
"the most important discovery in half a century."
Speaking to
Business Insider, Cristina Cusin, a psychiatrist and an assistant professor at Harvard University, detailed the current differences between mental and physical pain.
"Imagine arriving in the emergency room with severe pain from a kidney stone - pain so bad that you can't think," said Cusin.
"You'll do anything to make it go away. And the doctors say, 'Here's a drug that we've been using for 30 years, it works 50-60 per cent of the time, and it should start to work in 4 - 6 weeks.' That's currently the best we can do."
Current treatments for people contemplating suicide are limited to phone lines, sedative drugs, anti-depressant medication and talk therapy.
There is a growing scientific consensus that a new strategy is required, leading to studies into the potential mental benefits of microdosing substances that are banned recreationally. These include MDMA, psilocybin and ketamine.
For her research, Cusin assessed nearly 40 ketamine studies that also involved brain imaging.
She noticed that people who are given ketamine experience tangible changes in their brain, many of which take place in regions connected to our ability to process and regulate emotions.
And it looks like the chemical increased activity in parts of the brain linked with reward processing, too.
Researchers working with depressed and suicidal patients at Columbia University Medical Center found that ketamine curbed their suicidal thoughts far more effectively than a commonly-used sedative.
The moods of most participants
in the study began to lift in less than 24 hours. In some cases, the positive effects lasted more than a month.
Other scientists were shocked at the drug's effectiveness and precision in four preliminary studies on patients with severe depression.
"The findings were unanticipated, especially the robustness and rapidity of benefit," they wrote.
"Ketamine appeared to directly target core depressive symptoms such as sad mood, suicidality, helplessness and worthlessness, rather than inducing a nonspecific mood-elevating effect."
Cusin wants further clinical testing but believes that the drug "absolutely has potential."
"In the next few years I'm really hopeful that we’re going to see new drugs that are completely different than what we have now," she said.
