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Researchers tested a single intravenous dose of ketamine in 73 people with major depression that had not gotten better with usual treatments. In a two-site, double-blind trial, people were randomly given either ketamine or an active placebo (the anesthetic midazolam). Twenty-four hours after the infusion, people who got ketamine were…
A single low-dose intravenous infusion of ketamine can relieve core symptoms of major depression within about two hours, with effects that can last up to two weeks. Research in animals links this fast effect to ketamine blocking NMDA receptors that are active at rest, which lowers eEF2 kinase activity and…
