Ketamine may work to treat three of the most common mental health problems - anxiety, depression and addiction - according to a new pair of studies.
The sedative has been used for anesthesia, especially by veterans, and as an illicit party drug for decades, but a growing body of research suggests it may be psychologically therapeutic, too.
For those with treatment-resistant mental health concerns, ketamine has shown promise for quickly relieving depression, and a number of clinics using the drug experimentally have popped up.
Now, two new studies from Harvard University and Yale University have found that it might work for depressed patients suffering from anxiety and addiction (respectively), too.
Two new studies from Harvard University and Yale University suggest that ketamine may work to treat depression in people who also have anxiety or addictions
Antidepressants fail to relieve persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness and fatigue for between 10 and 15 percent of sufferers.
Plus, somewhere around 60 percent of Americans with depression are estimated to also suffer from anxiety, and vice versa.
And that complicates treatment options that may make one condition better, but worsen then other, or only treat one.
It's a frustrating conundrum for millions of people worldwide. Treatment failures can serve to just deepen feelings of hopelessness and ongoing depression in turn can even raise risks of other diseases, such as Parkinson's.
'Historically, antidepressants have not been very effective for a particular subset known as anxious depression,' explains Dr Steven Levine, a New Jersey-baed psychiatrist who now runs nine ketamine clinics.
In recent years, doctors and the scientific community at large have started to become more open-minded to novel therapies for mental health issues, perhaps out of desperation to treat their most desperate patients.
And some of the unexpected treatment contenders have been long-denigrated 'party drugs,' including the active chemical in magic mushrooms and ketamine.
Ketamine was introduced in the 1960s and is still used as an anesthetic by veterinarians as well as many doctors.
It has a broad set of effects on the mind and body, creating a sense of dissociation that can act as a sedative because it changes a person's perception of their self and senses.
This psychological effect made ketamine a popular party drug, starting in the 1980s, and by 1999, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had classified it as as an illicit substance.
But recent research suggests that, when carefully administered by a professional, ketamine might not provide just temporary 'high' but fast-acting and real relief from depression.
And perhaps relief from often
