Editor's Summary
12 October 2006
Off-street medication
Well known as an animal tranquillizer, ketamine is also used as an illicit street drug called 'special K'. In recent years it has become clear that it also has remarkably rapid antidepressant activity. Its hallucinogenic effects are a complication, but research on its mode of action could lead to a better understanding of the nature of depression, and even to a new breed of drugs.
News Feature: Depression: Comfortably numb
It started life as an anaesthetic, then became a psychedelic club drug. Now researchers think ketamine could hold the key to understanding and treating depression, says Erika Check.
doi:10.1038/443629a