A MAGIC BULLET TO FIGHT SADNESS

Common Street Drug Touted for Depression

A new antidepressant being tested in Canada appears to do what no
other drug can -- increase connections between brain cells within
hours to swiftly improve symptoms.

The finding by Yale University researchers might explain how one dose
of ketamine can reduce symptoms of depression within 40 minutes among
the hardest-to-treat cases, and could help spur development of
quick-acting antidepressants.

About 17 per cent of the Canadian population will experience major
depression at some point in their lives.

Prozac-like drugs and other antidepressants take at least two weeks
to produce an effect, and sometimes months for a full effect. Even
then, they work well in only about a third of patients.

The risk of suicide increases during those dangerous weeks or months
of lag time.

"They start taking the drug, they're still depressed, they start to
get a bit more energy, but their mood doesn't increase," said Dr.
James Kennedy, director of the neuroscience research department at
the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. "The problem
is keeping the patient on the medication and preventing them from
using their new energy in a bad way to kill themselves.

"This finding might help to prevent what has been a major clinical problem."

Ketamine is a fast-acting liquid anesthetic used mainly by
veterinarians; it's also used in human medicine, even in children,
because it doesn't depress breathing.

It's also an illegal club drug, known as "special K" or "vitamin K."
The street version is usually sold in a powder form that can be
snorted or mixed into drinks, or dissolved into a liquid and
injected. It acts like LSD, causing vivid hallucinations in users and
a sensation of floating outside their bodies.

Earlier studies involving patients with "treatment-resistant"
depression have found that those given a single dose of ketamine
experience rapid and significant improvement in symptoms. In a small
study published earlier this month on patients with bipolar
depression, 71 per cent of participants responded to ketamine versus
six per cent who responded to a placebo.

"It's like a magic drug -- one dose can work rapidly and last for
seven to 10 days," Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and
neurobiology at Yale, said in a media statement.

"If someone is extremely ill, and in many cases may be even suicidal,
having a drug that works rapidly like this is just a tremendous
resource to have," Duman said in an interview with Postmedia News.