Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.u.edu.

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It's Lindsay Smith Rogers.

Ketamine is in the news again.

Today, Dr. Paul Kim, a psychiatrist and director of the Johns Hopkins Treat-Resist

S-Katamine Antidepressant Targeted, or Treat Depression Clinic, and co-director and psychiatrist, Dr. Paul

Nestat, talk about the differences between ketamine and S-Ketamine and FDA-approved medicine for treatment-resistant

depression. They also talk about why ketamine is in the news right now and the importance of

administering S-Ketamine in a clinical setting as part of a broader comprehensive mental health

strategy. Let's listen. Dr. Paul Kim and Dr. Paul Nestat, thank you so much

for coming on public health on call. So today we're going to revisit a topic that we've talked about

before, but is trending in the news again, and that is ketamine. But first, what are the

differences between ketamine and S-ketamine? Dr. Kim, could you walk us through what these two things are and how

they're used? Sure. Thanks for having us on. Difference between ketamine and S-ketamine. So when

people talk about ketamine, it is a mixture of both this S and this R-ketamine. The S-and-R-ketamine

are mirror images of each other. And so while they are

chemically same, they are structurally different. So like your right and left hand, they are

very similar. You know, they have five fingers, but they are mirror images of each other, and, you know,

you can't superimpose them on top of each other. And s-ketamine is just a purified form of that

mixture, so they have synthesized this one form of ketamine. And ketamine has been used for a very

...