Psychiatrists looking for a new treatment to give patients with major depression and suicidal tendencies may soon be able to administer ketamine inside of their offices.
If ketamine is approved by the Federal Drug Administration as a breakthrough therapy, it will be the first new treatment for a major depressive disorder in about 50 years, CNN reports. On Tuesday, Janssen Pharmaceutical announced it is working on two clinical trials with ketamine — one for treatment-resistant depression and one for depression with suicidal thoughts, and will present the data to the FDA in 2018. Ketamine is also known as the street drug Special K, which gives users the feeling of being out of their body. It was used in the 1960s as an analgesic and sedative and is still on the World Health Organization's Essential Medicine List, but because of its hallucinogenic side effects, it's mostly used today as a veterinary anesthetic.
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