Depression is a very common and well known term nowadays, but considering how many people know about this mental illness, not too much is actually known about the mental illness. The main reason for this is that many researchers have discovered that there’s not really one cause of depression, and it is actually many different chemicals that work in multiple parts of our nerves. This causes the symptoms of depression to be similar, but not exact in two different people with depression. And, more importantly, this causes the way people’s body’s and brain’s respond to respond to certain medications and treatments differently. In most cases, depression is caused by the brain’s inability to regulate mood because of improper number or non-functioning neurotransmitters and how they affect neurons, which is the target of most antidepressant medications. But what effect does this have on the person?

Neurotransmitters are a major component of our nervous system, and are required for mostly any basic function of the body. In general, the brain produces enough neurotransmitters to help the body normally function, but as previously stated, this is the main issue point for those suffering depression. The main issue could either stem from receptors for these neurotransmitters being too sensitive or not sensitive enough, if the brain produces too little or too much neurotransmitters, or even if the neurotransmitters don’t bind to their receptors quickly enough. This becomes a problem when neurotransmitters like Acetylcholine and Serotonin are affected, which regulate important functions like memory learning and sleep/appetite respectively. In general, by researching more about the causes of the malfunction of neurotransmitters, the closer we will get to better medication and treatment and even eventually a cure.

Depression is an extremely nasty mental illness, affecting over 300 million people worldwide and is the main contributing factor of suicide, which is within the top 10 causes of death within the US alone. While there are many different types of treatments for this, ranging from medication and therapy, some of these options don’t work effectively enough for nearly 30% of people with the mental illness. And with a possible consequence of increased suicide rates, lack of proper treatment for these individuals can prove to be extremely deadly. However, new studies and discoveries with a drug called ketamine could possibly change this.

When first hearing about this drug, it is very easy to think, “Oh, this is definitely great news for everyone!”. However, like most things that sound too good to be true, there’s a catch with this one. While tests of the drug has proved to have extreme effectiveness in dealing with the effects of depression, the side effects of the drug pretty much involve causing the patient to disassociate and can even induce effects on the mind similar to a psychotic state. A pretty big catch, right? But, despite these side effects, people are still willing to take this drug in order to counter the effects of depression itself and doctors are beginning to consider it useful as a “last ditch effort”. Just the fact that many people are willing to go through those awful side effects just to be rid of those of depression really shows how big of an issue this illness really is.

Not all hope is lost, however. While I may have been making it sound like ketamine itself is an awful drug, the existence of the drug and the positive effects that it gives highly outweigh the negatives. And for the moment, it is a functional alternative to just suffering with depression untreated. For example, by studying the mechanisms at which the drug affects the brain, we can get further research into treating depression in a more safer and efficient way. And for an illness as awful and widespread as this, that is all we can hope for at the moment.