Ketamine May Ease Depression By Acting Like an Opioid, Study Suggests

[rangerrebew]

Ketamine May Ease Depression By Acting Like an Opioid, Study Suggests

 
 
By Jamie Ducharme August 29, 2018
 

Ketamine, once known primarily as a club drug, has in recent years gained legitimacy among some scientific experts as potential therapy for hard-to-treat depression. It works faster than antidepressants but wears off fairly quickly, and the health consequences of taking ketamine over months and years is so far unknown. The drug is FDA-approved as an anesthetic, and several academic centers across the U.S. run ketamine clinics; private ketamine clinics run by doctors have also sprung up.

But new research points to what could be a major drawback of the drug. It seems to behave like an opioid in the brain, which experts worry could set patients up for dependence.

http://time.com/5381387/ketamine-opioid/

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Enough Is Enough Series: An Hallucinogen For Depression? Psychiatry Is Testing Ketamine (Special K) For Depression

https://psychroaches.blogspot.com/2014/12/enough-is-enough-series-hallucinogen.html

[excerpt]


Robert Berezin, MD
December 18, 2014

The article, “Special K, a Hallucinogen, Raises Hopes and Concerns as a Treatment for Depression,” by Andrew Pollack in the New York Times, December 9, 2014, tells how far afield my field, psychiatry, has really gone that it is even a consideration to use an hallucinogen for the treatment of depression.

Let’s start at the beginning. Depression is not a biochemical disorder. It is actually a manifestation of personality when too much anger gets directed at the self and crosses the line into a symptom.  See – “No its not the  Neurotransmitters, Depression is not a Biological Disease caused by an Imbalance of Serotonin.” Human suffering is not a brain problem, but a human problem. Psychotherapy addresses what ails us, not drugs. Unfortunately big Pharma and the APA have manufactured a house of cards that seems to be believed not only by most of psychiatry, but by the general public as well.

There has never been any link between the suffering of depression and biochemistry. Yes, of course, all our mental states are reflected in the brain. But they are not caused by a brain disorder. When psychotherapy addresses the salient issues, our brains then reflect a different state of mind. The brain does not lead anything. It follows.