bipolar depression

Ketamine improved bipolar depression within minutes

May 31, 2012

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Ketamine (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A single dose of ketamine significantly improved depression symptoms for 79 percent of patients within 40 minutes, and remained improved over three days, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health found. Now they’ve replicated that finding for patients with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a serious and debilitating condition where individuals experience severe swings in mood between mania and depression. The episodes of low or elevated mood can last days or months, and the risk of suicide is high.

Importantly, and for the first time in a group of patients with bipolar depression, they also found that ketamine significantly reduced suicidal thoughts. These antisuicidal effects also occurred within one hour. Considering that bipolar disorder is one of the most lethal of all psychiatric disorders, these study findings could have a major impact on public health./.../