Ketamine, widely known by the street name “Special K,” can cure symptoms of depression in hours according to a new study. The hallucinogenic drug alleviated depression in 64 percent of the study group, the Huffington Post reports.
A group of 72 patients were either randomly given ketamine or a placebo in a 40-minute intravenous drip. Only 28 percent of the placebo patients reported less depression, versus the 64 percent of ketamine patients. The effects lasted into the next week, as well.
This is dangerous territory to tread, as Special K is an intense club drug. It is used as animal tranquilizers and recreationally snorted in powder form. Some people can overdose on ketamine, plunging them into a “K-Hole” — something reportedly both terrifying and depressing.
James W. Murrough, an assistant professor of psychiatry at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital who helped administer the study, said they rain into few negative side effects from the drug. “One patient [reported] wondering whether time still existed during the infusion,” he said.
There has not been a peer review of the study yet.