Ketamine is another one of those drugs used during parties and connected with serious health hazards, even death. Yet, in Scotland, people have started seeing the drug as a way to treat protracted depression.
One of the psychiatrists from NHS Lothian will have a clinic operating by the end of this year. The clinic theoretically will offer treatments considered a substitute for electroconvulsive therapy, which is the other way of sending electric waves across the brain, by administering ketamine—that is a Type B drug.
Prof. Andrew McIntosh feels it might be an extra choice for those with tough cases of dark moods. This idea came as a private clinic in Lanarkshire started using ketamine to help those who did not get better with usual methods last summer.
Ketamine is a drug for surgeries normally, not usually for mood elevation, but the doctors still can pick it for some other purposes in treatment. Among the 12 cases receiving treatment at the clinic is one representing staunch opposition; Alex had been undergoing a very long time with very sad, very anxious days and turned to ketamine when everything else failed.
Ketamine is illegal out there, but it has had its own fame for a long time as a club drug for its unreal, dreamlike effect. "I had a wild, dreamlike feeling," said Alex. "You see things sort of float at times. Lying back, you might feel like drifting to other spots."
Alex had been administered ketamine therapy in the US before coming to Scotland, thinking it should be simple to procure here. "I remember I was so sad back then," she said. "Though now, I believe I'm doing well. I am busy trying new things, traveling more, and going back to who I used to be."
Sean Gillen, head of the Eulas clinic, said that for someone to get the therapy, the patient has to have a disorder really recognized by medicine and has to be checked on by a mind doctor. He is aware that the price of treatment puts it far beyond the reach of many and wishes it to be funded by the NHS.
Ketamine is mostly given for people to sleep through surgery. It, however, goes by other names on the party circuit and, if abused, can go down as a drug that damages the bladder very severely and causes other major problems. Andrew McIntosh is aiming to have set up a ketamine service at Royal Edinburgh Hospital by the end of the year. He explained, "After multiple antidepressants and treatments, some people don't get well. Ketamine gives hope to these people and works well. I think this is another form of treatment through which we can assist our people, which is not commonly done in Scotland yet."
According to Prof. McIntosh, how ketamine is acting to reduce depression is not well established in the literature, and he said the following: "Some guess it's because the brain can change more, can shift. Others feel it tweaks the links in the brain. It's true we do not fully get how it all works and why it helps so much, even if we see it does help a lot." He went on to say that the ketamine used for depression is not the kind that could be misused.
According to a spokesperson from the Scottish government, "It's up to the doctor to choose if a drug should be used. They decide based on what the patient needs and with their input, using the advice and rules about the drug."