Kayla Ivie
Ketamine vs. Depression
Ketamine is a anesthesia, which introduces a trance-like state while relieving pain and causing sedation and memory loss. But in recent clinical trials, there has been use of the drug in treating depression. Hailan Hu, a neuroscientist at Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, is a senior author on the new study. Hu has suspected that the drug is affecting the brain in the lateral habenula. These studies were used with mice and rats. Hu and the other scientists she worked with discovered that the Ketamine did affect that part of the brain. In the article it states that “a small proportion of the neurons in the lateral habenula fire several times in quick bursts, rather than firing once at regular intervals; the team found that “depressed” rodents had a lot more of these quick burst cells. In brain slices from normal rats, only about 7% of cells were the bursting type, but in rats bred to display depression-like behavior, the number was 23%.” When the depressed acting mice and rats were given Ketamine, the number of bursting cells was much lower, similar to the number in normal animals, Hu’s team found. Even when the researchers forced the neurons to fire in bursts, animals that had been given ketamine no longer showed depression-like behaviors. Hu and her team decided that the Ketamine acts so quickly because the drug immediately blocks the bursts in the lateral habenula.
I thought this article was really interesting because there are a lot of antidepressant drugs that people take these days. I work in a medical clinic where nearly every other patient is on an antidepressant so it was cool to learn about the other types of drugs that help with it. I liked learning about the effect this drug has on the brain. I chose this paper because the title intrigued me and I also like learning about different medical trials that go on in the world. This is relevant to society because there are millions of people who use antidepressants and some of them never kick in. The article stated that the Ketamine kicked in after hours of the injection, which could be beneficial to society.
WarrenFeb, Matt, et al. “Anesthesia Drug Ketamine May Fight Depression by Muzzling 'Bursting' Brain Cells.” Science | AAAS, 14 Feb. 2018, www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/
The title of your Blog immediately grabbed my attention. I work as a paramedic and our department has recently started carrying Ketamine. I have been really surprised and pleased with the effects of Ketamine when used per our protocol on combative patients. I was really surprised by the study in your blog because from what I have seen in the EMS field, ketamine pretty much knocks a patient out without depressing any vital signs. I assume that if it were used to treat depression the dosage would be much smaller than the doses that it is currently being used at. This could also be beneficial because overdoses on antidepressants is very common and Ketamine may be less dangerous when taken in large quantities. Great blog, thanks! -KS
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