“Treatment-resistant depression can be very complicated, especially for patients who do not respond to oral antidepressants or cannot tolerate them. For too long, healthcare providers have had few options to offer patients much-needed symptom improvement,” Bill Martin, global therapeutic area head of Neuroscience at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, said in a statement.
Patients could experience improvements in their symptoms as early as 24 hours without the need for daily oral antidepressants.
The approval, granted following FDA priority review, comes after more than a decade of research and almost six years of real-world evidence. As of Tuesday, it has been administered to more than 140,000 patients worldwide.
The drug “has proven to be a transformational treatment option for many patients with TRD by reducing depression symptoms in as little as 24 hours and reducing the time to relapse for patients who stay on treatment,” the company said.
There has been a growing use of using ketamine – described as a “dissociative drug” – to combat depression. It also made headlines due to its use by high-profile figures, including Elon Musk.
In March 2024, the head of Tesla and SpaceX said in an interview that he uses ketamine to boost his mental health.
“There are times when I have sort of… a negative chemical state in my brain, like depression, I guess,” Musk said, adding that he uses a “small amount once every other week.”
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
Antidepressants … Humbug!
Is it a surprise that the two most common side effects are depression and suicide? It’s way better trying natural alternatives … Some will work and others don’t, but it varies from person to person. We are different enough, that we can’t expect the very same result for all, even though regarding drugs, some like to pretend …
(Have personal experience of both “a-d’s” and pre-determined jokes, pretending to be ‘doctors’ … No offence, Stuart! Not directed towards you …)
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If doctors were to apply real “science” to treating the gut, SasjaL, they would be treating the gut of depressed patients, which is where it originates.
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The gut bacteria flora related to health issues, has been discussed a number of times. Treatments with faeces, “correcting” the faulty one, is a sensetive matter and by some, Big Pharma included, considered as quackery …
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Oh, forgot …
A number of stuff Big Pharma do today, can be considered as quackery, but when they basically control the agencies of concern, it doesn’t matter … Not to forget, they mostly produce symptom supressors today, which technically are not real medicines (healing drugs) A healthy patient, is a bad customer, as we all know …
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As crazy as Elon Musk acts, he is certainly no one to reference for how great ketamine is to promote ketamin for anything. And we ALL should know that since it’s some big pharma bullshit, there are major drawbacks to taking that mess. If I’m depressed, no pill or ketamine is going to help since depression, like other feelings are due to real life shit happening, like joblessness, fed up with massive surveillance in your damn face all the damn time, rampant inflation, toxic food, water and air. Why don’t they treat that shit?!! That would solve depression feelings and some more shit of the like, but no! Keep feeding folks to big pharma! For the love of!!!!
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I think technically the reaction to “real life shit” you talk about, Shelby, is probably more accurately labeled as either “grief” or “acute stress reaction” rather than “depression.” It can only be remedied by improving the situation people live in. What doctors label as depression seems to be a neurochemical disorder triggered by inflammation in the gut. Now that the pharmaceutical industry has taken over the diagnosis and treatment of depression, the medical profession has totally lost interest in following the scientific research investigating its root cause.
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Maybe I’m getting my drugs mixed up, but hasn’t ketamine been used for years in veterinary medicine to put animals to sleep for surgery or to euthanize them? I know it has been touted lately in psychiatric journals, but no one .mentions it is a “feel good drug” now being marketed with FDA approval.
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My understanding, Katherine, is that ketamine is a horse tranquilizer that was appropriated by anesthesiologists about 30 years ago to induce twilight sleep.
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Special K, classified as narcotics in Sweden 2005.
Common side effects: High blood pressure and bad hallucinations (bad trips) …
That said, Musk is obviously a neo-liberal, ie. far-right. (no, not “liberal” as in the US misconception …)
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