SPECIAL K INDEED –
Aug. 16, 2024 – Ketamine is an anaesthetic that can be used to treat depression, anxiety and pain in a medical setting.
However, it also has dissociative effects – meaning it can distort perceptions of sight, sound and time, as well as producing calming and relaxing effects. It’s used to treat depression in cases where traditional anti-depressants have not been effective.
“At a biological level, it probably turns off the area of the brain that is involved in disappointment,” says Prof Rupert McShane, a University of Oxford psychiatrist who runs an NHS ketamine treatment clinic. “That area is probably involved in depression.”
Dr Rajalingam Yadhu, a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital in London who also runs Save Minds, a ketamine infusion therapy clinic, told the BBC that the patients he treats have long-term depression and have usually tried a minimum of seven different medications without seeing an improvement.
“These are people who have actually tried everything in life, [are] extremely suicidal – and given the chance, would kill themselves.”
The treatment has also been used by high-profile individuals. As well as Perry, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has said he has been given ketamine to treat depression.
In an interview with CNN in March, the X and Tesla owner said the drug was “helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind”.
