A breakdown product, not ketamine, may ease depression
Hallucinogenic drug’s metabolite shows rapid effectiveness without side effects in mice
BREAKDOWN The anesthetic drug ketamine can ease depression, small studies have shown. But the benefit may come not from ketamine itself, but from one of its breakdown products, a new study suggests.
Psychonaught/Wikimedia Commons
Ketamine, a drug that has shown promise in quickly easing depression, doesn’t actually do the job itself.