PARIS: Preliminary test results on Monday showed that a new pill that slowly releases ketamine could treat people with severe depression without the psychedelic side effects of the often-abused drug.
First developed in the 1960s as an anesthetic, ketamine’s hallucinogenic and dissociative effects led to it becoming a party drug nicknamed “Special K.”
However, a growing body of research shows that ketamine is effective for about a quarter of people with depression who do not respond to common antidepressant medications.
Ketamine has been prescribed for depression for years in many countries.
US billionaire Elon Musk told CNN in March that he regularly uses small amounts of prescribed ketamine because it “helps get out of a negative mindset”.
The drug has long been administered intravenously in clinics, but recently a nasal spray made from a derivative called esketamine has grown in popularity.
Both can cause side effects to patients such as disorientation, high blood pressure, and increased heart rate.
There is also a fear that the medicinal use of this drug may turn into abuse.
The pill, described in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday, takes more than 10 hours to break down in the liver, study lead author Paul Glue told AFP.
“The feedback we’ve gotten from patients is really interesting in that there are no side effects – no excitement, no dissatisfaction,” said the researcher from the University of Otago in New Zealand.
“I don’t think these pills will appeal to people who are abusing ketamine.”
– Electric-shock option –
The phase 2 trial included more than 270 people with depression who had previously taken an average of four different antidepressant medications.
more than half the people ketamine pill The study said that 70 percent of people in the placebo group had their depression resolved, while after 13 weeks, 70 percent of people in the placebo group had their depression re-appear.
Julene Allen, a mental health and addiction expert at Charles Sturt University in Australia who was not involved in the study, praised the trial and stressed that more research is needed.
He told AFP that ketamine doesn’t work for everyone, and “its positive effects may wear off over time.”
There is “real excitement” in the medical community about ketamine’s potential in treating depression, said Michael Hoffmann, a psychiatrist at Geneva University Hospitals.
“For patients who do not respond to conventional drugs, ketamine is a way to avoid electro-shock therapy,” he told AFP.
This last-resort treatment, in which an electric current is sent through the brain, has proven effective.
But it can cause memory loss — and some patients fear the procedure after seeing it depicted in movies such as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
– ‘Opioid style crisis’ feared –
Some psychiatrists are hesitant to prescribe ketamine for depression because they fear their patients may abuse the drug.
Last year, “Friends” actor Matthew Perry died of a ketamine overdose.
US police are investigating how Perry received the doses that killed him – he was reportedly not monitored for several days.
Previous research has shown that one potential benefit of quick-acting ketamine is that it could help patients considering suicide.
But Oxford researcher Riccardo De Giorgi wrote in a 2022 BMJ editorial, “There is concern that widespread use of ketamine could lead to a new opioid-style crisis.”
This slow-release pill could alleviate some of these concerns by avoiding the side effects of ketamine that some party-goers seek.
The pill still had some side effects, the most common being headache, dizziness, and anxiety.
Glu said more research, including Phase 3 trials, is needed before the drug can be reviewed by national drug agencies, meaning it will be at least two or three years before patients can potentially get the pills.
DL/NMC/RLP
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