GordoTEK

FDA this week approved a powerful psychedelic to treat depression!

Added 2019-03-06 22:22:45 +0000 UTC

I must admit, I was not even aware that this was in trials. If you haven't heard of ketamine, it is a very powerful psychedelic drug, if used in higher doses it just puts you to sleep (it is used as an anesthetic for surgery) but at lower doses, it causes euphoria, hallucinations, and many users feel like they have completely left their body (known as a dissociative psychedelic experience).

There are a few reasons this news is important, first of all, it is the first new class of drug to be approved for the treatment of depression in decades, second, it shows a surprising new willingness by the FDA to approve a psychedelic (the clinical trials for this were not even very impressive). This is key because more traditional psychedelics like psilocybin and DMT/ayahuasca are currently being researched for treating things like anxiety, PTSD, and depression -- this FDA decision may be an early indication that psychedelics could make their way into mainstream American medicine even sooner than most expected.

This decision was also surprising for other reasons, ketamine is quite addictive and often even dangerous (I do not recommend this drug). Many people have died after taking ketamine from stupid things like drowning, going outside in the cold and freezing to death, falling, walking into traffic - but it seems popular sleeping pills like Ambien might actually be even worse in that regard.

This new drug (a slightly tweaked version of ketamine, taken nasally) is being very tightly controlled (REMS program), and can only be used in a doctor's office. I believe there will come a day when psychedelics will be used by licensed therapists as part of their normal practice, as well as with very ill patients to ease their anxiety in ways that other substances can't. We live in interesting times.