How does the new nasal antidepressant work?
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A new antidepressant was launched in the United States with the promise of helping people who are not served by conventional
Spravato is the new medication used to treat depression. For the first time, to treat this disease, a drug that is applied as a nasal spray is launched on the market. Jansen, Johnson and Johnson's pharmacy, are authorized to distribute this product until now. However, it can only be used under supervision in hospitals or specialized centers.
According to the Washington Post, this is the most significant breakthrough in depression treatments in many years. Similarly, the Women's Health media review the statement of a doctor at the Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, which says that the most significant benefit of this antidepressant is the effectiveness against others. That is why, precisely, the drug is not used in all people suffering from depression, but in cases of people who have not served the other treatments. The best thing about the medicine is the "speed of its action, in a few days, when it takes six to eight weeks with a conventional antidepressant."
However, due to the high concentration it has, it requires a very rigorous and supervised treatment. This, since the medication, has several contraindications and there are several specific cases in which it can not be used.
According to the official website of Spravato, these are the main recommendations when consuming it, being, most importantly, using it only with medical order:
1. The service provider must be present during the consumption and the effect and must be applied as it is indicated
2. Only the stated amount should be taken
3. To avoid contraindications, it must be used precisely following the schedule stipulated previously, without missing or changes
4. During the effect, the patient will be checked all the time, and the provider will decide when the patient can leave
5. The patient can not drive or leave alone after the medical appointment
6. If you miss a session, you must change the dose and regenerate a calendar
7. May cause nausea and vomiting, it is recommended that the patient does not eat from two hours before applying the medication
8. If the patient consumes any other type of medicine by nasal suspension, it should not be used from one hour before minimum
Read also: Asperger syndrome: everything you need to know
A highly addictive antidepressant?
The controversy with this new medicine falls on one of its components: ketamine. Derived from ketamine, a drug known to be 'sedative for horses' and other large animals, it has excellent effects on consumer sedation. It is precisely this effect that is sought when applied to patients. Ketamine is already used in some cases as a general anesthetic, but its hallucinogenic component makes its use restricted.
The concern with this component is, mainly, the high risk of addiction that it presents. According to the Info Drugs organization, the great danger is that ketamine as such can produce mental and physical dependence, in addition to which it creates tolerance quickly, causing higher doses to be needed.
Also, the medicine has as the main contraindication, according to its official website, it can lead to suicidal thoughts or actions, and increase depression at the moment. This happens especially in the first months and when the doses are changed and are the main reason why you should be in constant care while the effect. Supervision also occurs in the sense in which ketamine can produce hallucinations that lead to affect the treatment, so the patient must be in a place where there are no stimuli of any kind, such as images or music, although sometimes, only with these thoughts do these hallucinations occur.
LatinAmerican Post | Juliana Suárez
Translated from "¿Cómo funciona el nuevo antidepresivo nasal?"
