Fast Acting Antidepressant
Ketamine used to be primarily used as a veterinary general anesthetic and occasionally a human anesthetic drug, but ketamine apparently is a fast acting antidepressant medication. It is a scheduled drug–i.e. restricted drug according to the DEA.
Ketamine, acts on the brain chemical glutamate. It can lift depression symptoms in just hours, rather than the weeks required for conventional antidepressants, which work through the brain chemical serotonin. Research suggests that glutamate likely acts closer to the source of the depression than serotonin, and is not dependant on slow mechanisms, such as the synthesis of new neurons.
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