About 6 years ago I had some surgery that was done using Ketamine and a local anesthetic.
As described above I had some hallucinations, however what I also experienced was a feeling of a raised level of happiness which lasted for weeks afterward.
I have a reputation of being a jolly person with a great sense of humor, however the Ketamine kicked it up to a whole new level.
During the surgery I started cracking jokes and the whole surgical team was howling with laughter to the point where my surgeon had to say, "hold the jokes for a few minutes, I have to do some cuts", then he would, "go ahead with the jokes again, till I say stop" and so it went for the rest of the operation, no one remembered ever laughing so much during an operation.
I studied the effect by surfing the internet and found some data on the effect and several years later recommended it to a friend who was bi-polar, she informed me that she was being reared with Ketamine and that she was better than she had ever been.
I have read that the Ketamine effect may change theories regarding the underlying causes of depression.
Ketamine is off patent and cheap, this should reduce the cost of treating depression, however I find the delay in accelerating testing and bringing it into standard clinical practice worrying.
Hopefully it will not fall into the category of ignored
treatments which may be highly efficacious, but with no great profit margin.
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