As usual, I first found this article on reddit and I was kind of stunned. I mean, really - ketamine improving symptoms of bipolar disorder? How could it not? It’s fucking ketamine! I looked a little closer at the original paper and this priceless gem stood out:

Within 40 minutes, depressive symptoms, as well as suicidal ideation, significantly improved in subjects receiving ketamine compared with placebo (d = .89, 95% confidence interval = .61-1.16, and .98, 95% confidence interval = .64-1.33, respectively); this improvement remained significant through day 3. Seventy-nine percent of subjects responded to ketamine and 0% responded to placebo at some point during the trial. The most common side effect was dissociative symptoms, which occurred only at the 40-minute time point.

Okay, guys. THAT IS NOT A SIDE EFFECT. THAT IS KETAMINE. AND IT IS NOT YOUR MAGICAL MYSTERY CURE. So basically what happened here is some well-funded scientists got people with bipolar disorder high on ketamine and said, “Hey look! When they’re high they don’t want to kill themselves!” Then they attributed all their results to something about NMDA antagonists and depression. 

Way to go. I’m really looking forward to the follow-up studies on this one. 

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