Ketamine: How Special is Special K?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 12.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For years, ketamine has been thought of mostly as a horse tranquilizer — or a street drug that puts you in a scary-sounding K-hole. But now, we’re hearing reports that it could be almost a miracle medicine, treating stubborn depression and other mental illnesses. So how good is it, really? And could using a drug like this for depression actually be dangerous? We talk to researchers Dr. Rebecca Price, Prof. Colleen Loo, and Prof. Gerard Sanacora – and Fernanda Graciolli. UPDATE 4/28/23: A previous version of this episode incorrectly described Dr. Rebecca Price’s role in a 2009 study of ketamine’s effect on depression and suicidal thoughts, back when she was a graduate student. The episode has been updated accordingly. This episode does deal with depression and suicidal thoughts. Here are some crisis hotlines: United States: US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (2755) (Online chat available); US Crisis Text Line Text “GO” to 741741 Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 (Online chat available) Canada: Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (See link for phone numbers listed by province) United Kingdom: Samaritans 116 123 (UK and ROI) Full list of international hotlines here Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsKetamine In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro: Ketamine - a new wonder drug? (05:47) Chapter One: Ketamine and depression (10:37) Chapter Two: What does ketamine do in the brain? (15:04) Chapter Three: But ketamine doesn’t help everyone … (20:17) Chapter Four: The risks of using ketamine (24:30) Chapter Five: Ketamine and addiction (25:54) Chapter Six: Overall — what should we make of ketamine? This episode was produced by Michelle Dang,Wendy Zukerman, R.E. Natowicz, Joel Werner, Rose Rimler, and Meryl Horn. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Gimlet’s managing director is Nicole Beemsterboer. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Catherine Anderson. Music written by Bobby Lord, Peter Leonard, Bumi Hidaka, So Wiley, and Emma Munger. Thank you to researchers Prof. Bita Moghaddam and Grace Forsyth. Special thanks to Flora Lichtman, Jorge Just, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Original Podcast and a Gimlet production. Follow Science Vs on Spotify, and if you want to get notifications every time we put out a new episode, tap the bell icon in your app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman, and you're listening to Science Vs from Gimlet, and we are
0:04.6	pitting facts against falling into a K-hole.
0:08.4	Today on the show, Ketamine.
0:13.6	You might know it as a horse tranquilizer or even a party drug.
0:17.1	But these days, there's always talk that it can treat depression and a whole bunch
0:22.0	of other mental health conditions.
0:24.6	So we want to know, is this for real?
0:28.1	And in today's episode, we are talking about suicidal thoughts and depression.
0:37.6	So please take care when you're listening to the show.
0:40.5	And if you are feeling depressed or you just want to talk to someone, we'll put some
0:44.2	numbers that you can call in our show notes.
0:46.8	Okay, let's get started.
0:51.9	Fernando Graciali is a web developer from Massachusetts.
0:55.6	Whenever since she was a little kid, she struggled with depression.
0:59.2	I would have these periods of time where I would come home from school, for example,
1:05.4	and I would just cry for an hour or two hours, you know.
1:10.2	And I wouldn't want to do anything.
1:12.8	I didn't want to play.
1:14.8	I just wanted to be in my room by myself.
1:17.3	And that was when I was a really little kid, but by the time I was 10, I was truly depressed,
1:22.9	like grown-up depressed.
1:25.1	In her teens, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she'd have these terrible
	...

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