Doctors Now Turning to Ketamine for Depression and Anxiety Treatment

(DailyDig.com) – As opioid painkiller usage decreases in the US, a novel treatment for chronic pain is gaining traction. The anesthetic ketamine has been used in surgery for decades, but recently it’s become popular in the psychedelic treatment of several disorders.

Some experts are concerned that the US is overprescribing a medicine with doubtful efficacy and considerable misuse and safety hazards because of the lack of studies on its usefulness. This is similar to the blunders that led to the opioid epidemic.

Dr. Padma Gulur, a pain expert at Duke University, has observed that since there are so few treatment alternatives, people are quick to try whatever seems to work. There is widespread off-label (not FDA-approved) usage of drugs when a medical publication publishes a few articles claiming the medicine is effective but without the necessary supporting scientific evidence.

Among the 300 ketamine patients Gulur followed at Duke, over a third had serious adverse effects that required medical intervention, such as visual problems, troubled thinking, and hallucinations.

Because of the way its chemical components change consciousness, ketamine is known as a dissociative drug. The FDA first green-lit it for use as a surgical anesthetic. Under the label “special K,” it’s also been called a drug of abuse.

By 2019, the FDA had approved a variant of the medicine called esketamine, formed into a nasal spray for treatment of one kind of “treatment-resistant depression.”

Patients with this type of depression; unipolar depression, bipolar depression, and suicidal ideation all benefited rapidly and significantly from ketamine therapy, according to a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open. However, these results didn’t last long at all.

Dissociation, disorientation, mood changes, sensitivity to light or sound, blurred vision, nausea, and headaches are all possible short-term adverse effects of ketamine.

Ketamine has the potential to induce liver damage, addiction, and bladder and urination issues over time.

According to the University of Utah, ketamine may also increase blood pressure and heart rate; therefore, individuals with previous health concerns should consult with their physicians before seeking therapy.