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While we have a number of treatments available for clinical depression, many of them have a significant side effects, and a lot of people struggle to find a drug that they respond to. The situation is made worse by our limited understanding of the biology underlying depression. We don’t know how to create targeted drugs, so most of the available treatments are blunt instruments that can take weeks to months before having an effect.
In that light, it came as a bit of a shock when we discovered a drug we’d been using recreationally and for anesthesia could lift the symptoms of depression in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately, the drug in question, ketamine, also has a collection of unpleasant side-effects, and we had no idea how it was working.
But there’s been significant progress in unravelling the confusion over ketamine, with researchers identifying a ketamine derivative that tackles depression with far fewer side effects. And this week, a team of researchers at China’s Zhejiang University announced that they’ve figured out where in the brain ketamine acts when it blocks depression, a finding that gives us significant insights into the biology of the disorder.
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