Now, an Israeli study has revealed that the mechanism of ketamine’s action on potassium channels in neurons may lead to improved therapies for depression.
Ketamine is an anesthetic that was best known in the past when used in smaller doses as a party drug. But in 2017, it was greeted as a “new hope for depression”, even hitting the front pages in a Time magazine cover story. In 2019, Janssen, a European subsidiary of US pharma giant Johnson & Johnson, released the first ketamine-based antidepressant, a nasal spray based on esketamine.
Until now, due to US FDA limits imposed because of the lack of clarity on how ketamine works, the spray has been prescribed mainly for depressed patients who have not been helped by other therapies.