Ketamine, made the levels of anhedonia plummet in treatment resistant Bipolar patients. And this happened in 40 minutes! Oh my gosh, if this truly becomes a therapy for depression, it would be a miracle for treatment resistant people. Oh my goodness, absolutely amazing!

A drug being studied as a fast-acting mood-lifter restored pleasure-seeking behavior independent of — and ahead of — its other antidepressant effects, in a National Institutes of Health trial. Within 40 minutes after a single infusion of ketamine, treatment-resistant depressed bipolar disorder patients experienced a reversal of a key symptom — loss of interest in pleasurable activities — which lasted up to 14 days. Brain scans traced the agent’s action to boosted activity in areas at the front and deep in the right hemisphere of the brain.

compared with those who received placebo — and the effect was still detectable in some patients two weeks later. Other depressive symptoms improved within 2 hours. The anti-anhedonic effect remained significant even in the absence of other antidepressant effects, suggesting a unique role for the drug.