A recent study undertaken by researchers at the
National Institute of Mental Health found a single dose of ketamine was able to
drastically reduce suicidal thoughts in patients with bipolar depression.
Bipolar disorder occurs when a patient suffers sever mood swings that may range
from mania to depression; patients who have this disorder are often at risk for
suicide.
In the study
led by Dr. Carlos Zarate, patients were either given a placebo or the ketamine
treatment on two different days for two different weeks. The study found that
the “in the ketamine group,
depression symptoms significantly improved within 40 minutes, and remained
improved over 3 days. Overall, 79 percent of the patients improved with
ketamine, but none reported improvement when they received placebo”. The
findings are a breakthrough in medicine because, traditionally, patients
suffering from bipolar disorder are often treated with antidepressants which
may take longer or need higher dosages to work and may not even be effective since
patients could still suffer episodes while on medication, but the ketamine was
able to rapidly reduce suicidal thoughts in just under an hour. This is very vital
for future research into medication because patients with bipolar depression
are often at high risk for suicide. Dr. Zarate said “We think that these findings are of true importance given
that we only have a few treatments approved for acute bipolar depression, and
none of them have this rapid onset of action; they usually take weeks or longer
to have comparable antidepressant effects as ketamine does.”
Ketamine is often used in tandem with sedatives as a
potent anesthetic. It acts a receptor antagonist, meaning it blocks the actions
of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA).
Zarate said of the ketamine’s
effectiveness, “…Confirmation that blocking the NMDA receptor complex is
involved in generating rapid antidepressant and antisuicidal effects offers an
avenue for developing the next generation of treatments for depression that are
radically different than existing ones”.
Source:
Written By: Salma Khan
Image Provided by Google Images
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