The research group used a gadget that allowed mice to self-administer doses of ketamine via a catheter. Credit: Christian Lüscher.
Ketamine has likewise been utilized to deal with depressive symptoms in people who have actually stopped working to react to standard treatments for the previous ten years or so. Some individuals think that ketamine provides a strong addictive risk if taken for a long time, while others do not.
Dependency vs. Dependence.
Addiction is specified as the compulsive use of a compound regardless of its unfavorable effects (behavioral disorder). Dependence, on the other hand, is identified by the appearance of one or more withdrawal symptoms on abrupt cessation of usage (physiological condition). Reliance– the physical manifestations of which differ considerably depending on the drug– impacts everyone. Dependency, on the other hand, affects just a minority of people and is not triggered by all drugs.
When it comes to cocaine, for instance, just 20% of users become addicted, even after prolonged direct exposure. For opiates, the rate is 30%. In its recent work, Christian Lüschers group looked for to examine the risk of dependency to ketamine.
Brief stimulation of the reward system.
The UNIGE scientists used a device that permitted mice to self-administer doses of ketamine. “The drugs extremely promote the benefit system in the brain, which results in an increase in dopamine levels. The primary step was to observe whether this system was also at work when taking ketamine,” discusses Yue Li, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Basic Neuroscience at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine.
The researchers discovered that the level of dopamine– also understood as the “satisfaction particle”– increased with each dosage and induced a positive reinforcement in the mice, which encouraged them to repeat the self-administration. “Nevertheless, unlike drug, for instance, we found that the dopamine level fell really rapidly after taking the drug,” says Yue Li.
A drug that does not leave its “mark”.
They discovered that ketamine triggered an increase in dopamine by inhibiting a molecule called the NMDA receptor in the benefit center of the rodent brain. The effect of this dual action of ketamine is that it does not cause the synaptic plasticity that addicting drugs do and that persists in the brain after the substance has worn off. It is this memorization of the product in the benefit system– missing in the case of ketamine– that drives the repeating of intake, discusses Christian Lüscher.
Referral: “Dual action of ketamine confines addiction liability” by Linda D. Simmler, Yue Li, Lotfi C. Hadjas, Agnès Hiver, Ruud van Zessen, and Christian Lüscher, 27 July 2022, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-022-04993-7.
According to the research study, the medicinal usage of ketamine has a low risk of dependency.
Researchers have shown that ketamine triggers simply a short boost in dopamine and has no impact on neuronal communication.
Ketamine is a typical anesthetic in medication which is also significantly recommended to treat depressive signs. This extremely fast-acting psychotropic drug is especially ideal for the treatment of individuals who have ended up being resistant to standard antidepressants.
However, there has actually been disagreement about its prescription since some individuals think there is a considerable danger of addiction. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has investigated this by administering the drug to mice. Like other drugs, it triggers an increase in dopamine in their brains, however it also inhibits a specific receptor that prevents the progression to dependency. The findings were recently released in the prominent journal Nature..
Ketamine, discovered by American researcher Calvin Lee Stevens in 1962, is a miracle drug produced from phencyclidine with strong anaesthetic effects. It is extensively used in both animal and human medication, most especially for pain relief and brief sedation. It is also unlawfully used for leisure reasons, with the dissociative impact causing a distorted perception of truth.
Ketamine, found by American researcher Calvin Lee Stevens in 1962, is a synthetic drug produced from phencyclidine with strong anaesthetic results. Ketamine has likewise been utilized to treat depressive symptoms in people who have actually failed to react to standard treatments for the past 10 years or so. In its recent work, Christian Lüschers team sought to examine the risk of addiction to ketamine.
They discovered that ketamine triggered a boost in dopamine by hindering a particle called the NMDA receptor in the benefit center of the rodent brain. The repercussion of this double action of ketamine is that it does not induce the synaptic plasticity that addictive drugs do and that continues in the brain after the compound has worn off.