A Ketamine metabolism byproduct has been shown to relieve depression. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
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Amanda Rupp | May 5, 2016

Ketamine metabolism byproduct shown to relieve depression

Research teams have conducted a rapid-acting, non-addicting agent for a mouse study that has shown a chemical byproduct (metabolite) that breaks down ketamine could be the key to ketamine’s fast-acting antidepressant action.

The researchers, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), believe that this metabolite could help to change the health industry’s approach to treating depression.

“Now that we know that ketamine’s antidepressant actions in mice are due to a metabolite -- not ketamine itself -- the next steps are to confirm that it works similarly in humans, and determine if it can lead to improved therapeutics for patients,” Todd Gould, grantee of the NIH, said.

The metabolite reversed the depress-like behaviors that the mice displayed. The metabolite didn’t cause any dissociative, anesthetic, or addictive side effects from the ketamine.

“This discovery fundamentally changes our understanding of how this rapid antidepressant mechanism works and holds promise for development of more robust and safer treatments,” Carlos Zarate, study coauthor and pioneer of research using ketamine to treat depression, said. “By using a team approach, researchers were able to reverse-engineer ketamine’s workings from the clinic to the lab to pinpoint what makes it so unique.”

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