Another depression medication proves riskier than the disease itself: Researchers recommend an “immense amount of caution” due to side effects
The latest example is esketamine, a drug that is currently being tested to help treat severe depression quickly. A form of ketamine, which is used as an anesthetic, esketamine has been shown to reduce severe depression symptoms like suicidal ideation quickly in some patients – which might even mean the difference between life and death in some cases.
Although a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study found that a nasal spray of esketamine worked well where traditional antidepressants had failed, the authors cautioned that unwanted side effects like psychosis and depersonalization could occur without a proper risk assessment.
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