Tag: anxiety disorder

Ketamine: Lessons from the Death of Matthew Perry

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The entertainment world was recently shaken by the tragic passing of Matthew Perry, the beloved actor best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the iconic sitcom “Friends.” Perry’s death, linked to a ketamine overdose, has cast a spotlight on this complex drug, its therapeutic potential, and its inherent dangers. In this post, we’ll explore ketamine’s effects on the brain, its promise in mental health treatment, and the critical need for responsible use and regulation.

Ketamine: A Brief Overview

Ketamine, first synthesized in 1962, has a long history as an anesthetic and analgesic. During the late 1960s, ketamine was marketed as the dissociative (out-of-body experience) anesthetic, under the name Ketalar and was used to treat soldiers in the Vietnam War. The abuse potential of ketamine was recognized in the early 1970s, but reports of ketamine abuse in human and veterinary medicine did not appear until the early 1980s in Australia and in the early 1990s in the United States. In recent years, it has gained significant attention for its rapid antidepressant effects, particularly in cases of treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine’s primary mechanism of action involves blocking the NMDA receptor for glutamate in the brain, leading to a dissociative state and a cascade of neurochemical changes.

Ketamine’s Impact on the Brain

Findings from my own laboratory in 1997 showed that repeated ketamine intake alters the balance between the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Ketamine’s interaction with the NMDA receptor for glutamate triggers a surge in glutamate, a neurotransmitter vital for learning and memory. This glutamate surge is thought to promote the growth of new synapses and neural connections, particularly in brain regions associated with mood regulation. Additionally, ketamine disrupts the default mode network (DMN), a brain network linked to rumination and self-referential thinking, which may contribute to its antidepressant effects. Research also suggests that ketamine may stimulate neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons) and promote neuroplasticity (changes in neural connections).

Ketamine’s Impact on the Mind

Ketamine’s psychological actions have been characterized as similar to temporary schizophrenia. Healthy volunteers receiving ketamine in an experiment have experienced sensations reminiscent of LSD. Ketamine can prompt people to feel like they are becoming transparent, blending into nearby individuals, or becoming an animal or object. Users may feel like their bodies are transforming into harder or softer substances. Persons may think they remember experiences from a past life. Some users take the drug to enter a semi-paralytic state described as similar to near-death experiences in which people perceive their consciousness as floating above their bodies, sometimes accompanied by meaningful hallucinations and by insights about the user’s life and its proper place in the cosmos.

The Promise of Ketamine in Mental Health

When administered at a therapeutic dose ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects have revolutionized the field of mental health treatment. Studies have shown that a single therapeutic dose of ketamine can alleviate depressive symptoms within hours, offering hope to individuals who have not responded to traditional antidepressants. In fact, so effective is therapeutic ketamine that it has been proposed as a chemical replacement for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and it may eventually replace the need for ECT altogether. Beyond depression, ketamine is being investigated for its potential in treating anxiety disorders, PTSD, and addiction.

The Perils of Ketamine

While ketamine holds immense therapeutic promise, it is crucial to acknowledge its risks. Ketamine can cause dissociative effects, hallucinations, and other adverse reactions. Moreover, it has a potential for abuse and addiction, as tragically illustrated by Matthew Perry’s case. Long-term effects of ketamine use on brain function and cognition remain an area of ongoing research.

Lessons from the Death of Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry’s untimely death serves as a poignant reminder of the dangers of substance abuse, even with substances that have therapeutic potential. It underscores the critical need for responsible use, careful monitoring, and effective regulation of ketamine.

Weekly Neuroscience Update

Visual and auditory stimuli that elicit high levels of engagement and emotional response can be linked to reliable patterns of brain activity, a team of researchers reports. Their findings could lead to new ways for producers of films, television programs and commercials to predict what kinds of scenes their audiences will respond to.

Implants that deliver pulses of light into the brain could lead to new treatments for diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe type of anxiety disorder that can occur after an individual experiences a traumatic event. However, at present, doctors are unable to predict who will develop these disorders. Now, a new study seeks to identify individuals who are more susceptible to long-standing disorders if exposed to a traumatic event.

Researchers have discovered how a part of the brain helps predict future events from past experiences. The work sheds light on the function of the front-most part of the frontal lobe, known as the frontopolar cortex, an area of the cortex uniquely well developed in humans in comparison with apes and other primates.

Fish cannot display symptoms of autism, schizophrenia or other human brain disorders. However, a team of MIT biologists has shown that zebrafish can be a useful tool for studying the genes that contribute to such disorders.

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered one of the most important cellular mechanisms driving the growth and progression of meningioma, the most common form of brain and spinal cord tumor. A report on the discovery, published in the journal Molecular Cancer Research, could lead the way to the discovery of better drugs to attack these crippling tumors, the scientists say.

Researchers have furthered understanding of the mechanism by which the cells that insulate the nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system, Schwann cells, protect and repair damage caused by trauma and disease.

Dyslexia rules KO

Image Source: Corbis

In my previous neuroeducation post, I briefly outlined the latest scientific research which shows that learning actually changes the shape of the brain, allowing specific areas in the brain to grow or change and how most importantly this brain growth can be accelerated to improve learning and memory using certain approaches to teaching.

Neuroeducation also encompasses the study of common conditions such as brain injury, dyslexia, hyperactivity attention deficit disorder, learning disability, malnutrition, stuttering and indeed depression and anxiety disorder.

Today let’s take a look at one of these conditions in more detail.  

Dyslexia rules KO 

Research has shown that children with dyslexia suffer from two specific problems: trouble analyzing and processing sound (phonology) and difficulties with rapid naming of objects. 

Early intervention particularly with phonological therapies – before the child gets into trouble in school – appears to prevent dyslexia. The old idea was that dyslexia was somehow a hole in brain – a mental deficit – is not the case. These children appear to be just on the low end of an ability to learn to read instead of having some problem in their brains in much the same way as those children who find difficulty learning a musical instrument.

The problem for dyslexic children is that unlike learning a musical instrument, learning to read is regarded by society as an essential skill – thus putting these kids on the back foot.  The good news is that early detection and treatment for dyslexia is available and better and more effective treatments are being developed as we speak.