Ketamine therapy is a powerful treatment option as part of a comprehensive care plan for depression and other mood disorders. This ability to reduce self-harm automatically puts ketamine into a very select group of medications, along with lithium and clozapine. Reducing self-harm is a result which no other antidepressant has ever been proven to have.

Ketamine blocks glutamate, a neurotransmitter associated with stress, while most antidepressants act on the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, or norepinephrine. Ketamine has also been shown to help stimulate the regrowth of neurons in a brain stressed by depression,4 likely by increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).5 Ketamine can help with one of the most serious symptoms of depression: suicidal thinking. Multiple studies have shown that “a single ketamine infusion rapidly reduced the severity of suicidal thinking, within 24 hours in more than half the patients, and with benefits observed up to 1 week.”6