Ketamine tackles depression by helping us focus on the positive and learn from it

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-29 01:00

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Ketamine, also known as a party drug and a horse tranquiliser, may be so rapid and effective in its relief of severe depression because it makes us focus more on positive information than negative information, and also makes us update our beliefs based on the positive information, according to a small study by international scientists. The study included 56 people, 26 of whom had treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and 30 of whom were mentally healthy. Those with TRD were given three doses of ketamine on different occasions and followed up, while the mentally healthy people were not given any ketamine. They found that people with TRD updated their beliefs more after good than bad news following a single ketamine infusion, while the mentally healthy people did not. They then used computer simulations to show that learning rates were higher following good than bad news in the ketamine group.