COSMOPOLITAN · 83“Nothing
had worked.
I’d have
tried
anything”
“Patients
saythey
experience
rapidresults”even taken me to a stone healer. One
medication made my eyesight so bad
I thought I was going blind. [By that
point] I would have tried anything.”
Paying for it herself, after being
referred by her private psychiatrist,
Lina arrived at the Oxford clinic, based
inside the Warneford Hospital. There,
ketamine is used as a depression
treatment. Ketamine is one of the UK’s
most widely used anaesthetics, and
when administered in any other way
- in a medical setting – it’s known
as being “off label”. The drug is not
being used illegally as it’s approved
for anaesthesia, but it’s not currently
licensed for prescription in the
same way as more common
antidepressants. However, in
November The European Medicines
Agency and the UK health regulator
will make a decision on licensing the
drug as a treatment for depression at
private clinics. If approved, it could be
more widely available within months.
And NICE (National Institute for
Health and Care Excellence) is due
to decide whether to approve the drug
for NHS use as an antidepressant in
March next year. The nasal spray, like
the IV drips, would only be used in
supervised clinics, and to treat those
who suffer from treatment-resistant
depression. It’s unlikely to ever be
prescribed by doctors for at-home use.
Before her first infusion, Lina was
wary. She couldn’t see how, after
everything else she’d tried, this would
work. She lay back, Lana Del Rey
playing through her headphones
and huge sunglasses over her eyes,
hoping they would help distract
her during the 45-minute infusion.
“I tried to let the drug work,” she says.
“It was surreal, I felt like I was outside
of myself. My worries – and the
solutions – seemed as clear as day,
and surmountable.” By the
third infusion, a few months
later, she felt like she could
breathe. “I could cope,” she
says. “I hadn’t felt like that
before in my adult life.”
Her last infusion – number
nine – was in February
this year, and Lina remains
in regular therapy. The
ketamine treatment, she
says, has had a huge effect
on her day-to-day life. She hasn’t
tried to self-harm and has felt more
sociable. “I’ve been able to enjoy small
things again – like listening to music
and reading. I still have days when
I can’t get out of bed, but for the first
time, I can see a future for myself.”
Regular antidepressants can take
up to eight weeks to kick in, while
ketamine-therapy patients say they
can experience results within hours.
The long-term effects, though, remain
to be seen – with some patients being
advised to visit ketamine clinics
weekly and others finding they
haven’t needed to go back.
In the US, after the “trip” that
took her to the edge of the Grand ›READ