Researchers say party drug ketamine could be used to treat depression

Researchers say party drug ketamine could be used to treat depression
(Image credit: iStock)

While ketamine — or Special K — is better known as a hallucinogen, scientists at Yale, Mount Sinai, and the National Institute of Mental Health think it could be an effective treatment for depression, particularly for "people who are not helped by widely used conventional antidepressants like Prozac or Lexapro," according to The New York Times:

And the depression seems to melt away within hours, rather than the weeks typically required for a conventional antidepressant. [The New York Times]

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.