82 ·^ COSMOPOLITAN
giving her a controlled dose of
ketamine that’s been prescribed,
legally, by her doctor in the US. This
is the first of six trips. Ketamine –
everyone hopes – will be her saviour.
There are many reasons why people
take drugs. For some, it’s because they
- or the ingredients in them – make
them feel good. Recreational ketamine
users say they like how the drug helps
them forget their worries... for a while.
MDMA (ecstasy) can cause an intense
feeling of joy. Magic mushrooms can
send users on a trip that opens up
new perspectives to them.
Yet taking them illegally (possession
of all the above is against the law in
the UK) comes with serious dangers –
from not knowing exactly what you’re
taking to the risk of addiction, long-
term damage to your health and, in
some cases, death. But what if you
could extract the good ingredients
from these drugs? Make them safer
somehow? Could that help those who
struggle with depression or anxiety
that impacts their day-to-day life?
It’s this very question that scientists
have been trying to answer for years.
And – while the research is incredibly
complex – they have discovered that,
for some, if administered properly,
ketamine, psilocybin (found in magic
mushrooms) and MDMA can help
those with certain mental health issues.
So could this be the future of
treatment in the UK? And
if it is, what does that
mean for the way we
legally, and culturally,
classify these drugs?LAST CHANCE
Samantha was 12 years old
when she realised she felt
things more intensely than
others. “When I was happy,
it was such a high, but
when I was angry or sad, I’d cry to the
point of hyperventilating or sleep for
hours longer than I needed,” she says.
“One night, I got into a fight with
my parents over some stupid teenage
thing. I ended up in A&E after I hurt
myself to prove a point. I wasn’t trying
to die, but it was a manic episode.”After that, she was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder. Her doctor prescribed
antidepressants and she began to see
a therapist each week. But neither
helped. She went to another doctor
and was prescribed another
antidepressant. That didn’t help either.
Nor did a third. Two years after her
diagnosis, she attempted suicide. She
then attempted it again, the
very next day. Samantha’s
family desperately began
looking into other options.
Her mum found a ketamine
clinic nearby, dug into her
emergency savings and
booked her daughter in.
Most antidepressants are
thought to work by increasing
our serotonin levels – the
chemical that makes us feel
happy. Ketamine works in a totally
different way, and multiple research
facilities have found that in controlled
doses, it can alter people’s perceptions
of the world. Ketamine increases
production of a neurotransmitter
called glutamate, which prompts the
brain to create new connections –
researchers think this makes our minds
more adaptable, potentially allowing
patients to develop more positive
thoughts. There are more than
100 clinics in the US, where patients
who have been resistant to all other
depression treatments have ketamine
administered through a drip over a
number of sessions (the drug can also
be ingested via a nasal spray). Now the
UK is following, opening a handful of
clinics, including one in Oxford, led
by psychiatrist Dr Rupert McShane.
Lina,* who was one of Dr
McShane’s patients, discovered his
work online. Like Samantha, she was
desperate. She’d just been discharged
from hospital after a suicide attempt.
She was 28 years old and had suffered
from depression, OCD and bulimia
since she was 14. “Nothing had
worked,” she says, shrugging – listing
off the 14 different medications she’d
tried for her depression. “My mum had“Nothing had
worked. I’d
have tried
anything”