The research comes amid a 'psychedelic renaissance,' in which scientists have investigated whether psychoactive drugs such as MDMA and LSD could be used to treat mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Over the past few years, the party drug and animal tranquilizer ketamine has emerged as a fast-acting treatment for depression. Now, a study on mice has shed light on the brain mechanisms that could make the drug so potent in treating the mood disorder.
Depression is generally treated through cognitive behavioral therapy or antidepressant medications, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors . In recent years, scientists have explored whether ketamine could be another weapon in the arsenal at a doctor's disposal. Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a nasal spray to treat depression that contained esketamine, a drug similar to ketamine.
James Stone, a clinical senior lecturer in the department of neuroimaging at King’s College London told Newsweek: “The study builds on previous work that shows that ketamine can restore dendritic spines in depression. The unique aspect of this paper is the demonstration that the change in dendritic spine formation is associated with measurable changes in connectivity between neurons.
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