Swedish study shows – party drugs are believed to relieve depression

The drug ketamine is known as a party drug but is becoming increasingly common as a drug for severe depression.

There are some who cannot be sedated for electrical treatment, so we think there is room for ketamine drops, says Erling Åby Hedenius, senior physician of psychiatry in Visby.

Ketamine is a drug that has long been used in operations on both humans and animals. For example, US military doctors used ketamine on wounded soldiers during the Vietnam War. The effects are clear, it is pain-relieving and acts as an anesthetic. But ketamine is both hallucinogenic and addictive and has been classified as a drug in Sweden since 2005, partly because it is also used as a party drug.

The side effects often consist of feeling disconnected from your own body. You can experience your body as too big or too small. But they disappear 20 minutes after the drip treatment is over, says Pouya Movahed Rad, senior physician at psychiatry in Lund.

And the abuse has increased in recent years. Many people probably remember Friends star Matthew Perry who passed away last year, large amounts of ketamine were found in his blood, which he received intravenously for anxiety and depression.

Compared ketamine with electrotherapy

In a Swedish study that was carried out at several different hospitals in Sweden, approximately 200 patients who suffered from severe and deep depression were examined.

Everyone had strong suicidal thoughts due to depression, and where it was thought that ECT (electrical treatment) could be a good treatment, says Pouya Movahed Rad, senior physician at psychiatry in Lund.

A number of the patients got to try ketamine instead and it turned out that it could relieve the severe conditions that caused the patient to be hospitalized. However, the question of which types of patients are suitable for ketamine treatment remains.

Already used on Gotland

Ketamine can be used in treatment either via drip or with a nasal spray. The antidepressant nasal spray is approved by the Swedish Medicines Agency, while the drop version is not. Despite this, a survey conducted by TT shows that 13 regions in Sweden use ketamine drops for patients with severe depression. One of these is the Gotland region.

There are some who, for various reasons, cannot be sedated for electrical treatment, so we absolutely felt that there is room for ketamine drops. It is not the first recommendation, but something to use when we do not have the opportunity to provide electrical treatment, says Erling Åby Hedenius, senior physician at the psychiatry department in Visby.

Pouya Movahed Rad defends his colleague from Gotland and emphasizes that:

There are a great many treatments that are not approved for the purposes they are used for.