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Health

Ketamine ingredient improves severe depression in large trial

By Clare Wilson

5 May 2018

Ketamine

Could a form of ketamine treat depression?

Voisin/Phanie/REX/Shutterstock

The drug ketamine may have moved a step closer to routine use as an antidepressant. Positive – if modest – results from a large trial of an intranasal spray based on ketamine were announced by pharmaceutical giant Janssen today.

The firm is developing the treatment for people with severe depression . If everything goes to plan, the medicine could be available next year in the US and Europe.

Ketamine has long been used as an anaesthetic in people and animals. Some people also…

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