‘Magic’ anti-depressant?

Ketamine, a general anesthetic usually administered to children and pets but perhaps best known as a horse tranquilizer, is also highly effective in low doses as an anti-depressant, according a study published Thursday.

Researchers at Yale University wrote in the August 20 issue of the journal Science that unlike most anti-depressants on the market which can take weeks to take full effect ketamine can begin to counter depression in hours.

"It's like a magic drug -- one dose can work rapidly and last for seven to 10 days," said Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale and senior author of the study.

The researchers noted that ketamine was tested as a rapid treatment for people with suicidal thoughts. Traditional anti-depressants can take several weeks to take effect, they noted.

About 40 percent of people suffering from depression do not respond to medication, and many others only respond after many months or years of trying different treatments.

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I Walk Alone

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone



I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

and I'm the only one and I walk alone



My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone



I'm walking down the line

That divides me somewhere in my mind

On the border line

Of the edge and where I walk alone



Read between the lines

What's fucked up and everything's alright

Check my vital signs

To know I'm still alive and I walk alone



My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone



I walk this empty street

On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Where the city sleeps

And I'm the only one and I walk alone



My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

'Til then I walk alone...



So Green Day hits the nail on the head with this song, no? Sometimes checking my vital signs doesn't convince me.... and the truth of the matter is that no one "out there" will find me, or give me any answers. Not today anyway.

A few moments with Schizophrenia