The party drug ketamine could one day be used to help some people suffering from severe depression, according to British scientists who gave infusions of the narcotic, nicknamed "Special K," to patients.
Researchers who tested the drug on 28 people with major depressive disorder found ketamine quickly helped relieve the condition for some — and made a number of them completely well again for up to several weeks.
"It's dramatic and it's exciting, and it is a novel mechanism. But it's not about to become a routine treatment," Rupert McShane, a consultant psychiatrist and researcher at Oxford University who led the study, told reporters.