A three-year trial testing ketamine as an antidepressant has started

Ketamine's long been spoken about as an effective cure for depression and a "gold standard" trial using the drug has now launched in Australia and New Zealand.

Following a study in March strengthening the positive impact of the drug, 200 patients in the Southern Hemisphere today started the trial which will span seven research establishments.

Set to run for three years, patients will receive doses of ketamine and a placebo, not knowing which one is which, so researchers can monitor the effects each has. As previous trials have only take over a short amount of time, this one aims to find out the effectiveness of ketamine as a long-term treatment.

Colleen Loo, a leading researcher for the study, says: “Existing studies show that, if you give a single dose of ketamine to people with serious clinical depression, they do tend to get better – but that only lasts for a few days. Feeling better for a few days is no good with a chronic disease like depression.

"What we now need to do is establish whether it can be used as an effective ongoing clinical treatment and, if so, who best responds to the treatment and what the treatment guidelines might be. It is not good enough to say that just because it has made people feel better in previous trials, when given one dose, that it is a safe and effective treatment long term.”

Loo added that ketamine, so far only given the green light by Therapeutic Goods Administration, was already being prescribed to depressed patients by clinicians, but said that is a "big concern" as there is no evidenced-backed protocol to adhere to yet.

The University of South Wales, the Black Dog Institute, the University of Adelaide, the Royal Adelaide hospital and the University of Otago in New Zealand are among the institutions involved with the clinical trials.

Read our feature about DJs and mental health here.

[Via: the Guardian]

[Photo: Sarah Schönfeld]

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter