One of the studies mentioned in the Time magazine article about psychedelic research involves the use of ketamine as an antidepressant. As Time noted:
But the Archives [of General Psychiatry] paper--whose lead author, Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., is chief of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Unit at NIMH--found "robust and rapid antidepressant effects" that remained for a week after depressed subjects were given ketamine (colloquial name: Special K or usually just k).
If you're interested in a more detailed look at that research, I've provided a link to an older (August 2006) article from NewScientist that delves a little deeper:
Most anti-depressants work by boosting levels of the brain chemical serotonin. But ketamine acts in a different way, by reducing the effects of another neurotransmitter, called glutamate. This may explain the drug’s faster action, and suggest an alternative pathway for other antidepressant drugs, the researchers say.
Obviously the reason they're looking for an alternate pathway to other antidepressant drugs is because ketamine itself, you know, makes you trip and stuff. But still, ketamine is proving itself to be a remarkably versatile substance: a still useful general anesthetic, a promising cure for hard core alcoholism, and now a possible route to new antidepressant methodologies. Oh, and it gives you incredible out of body hallucinations where all of reality is transformed into a mutable substrate that you can dominate with your mind. What will they think of next?
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