Ketamine-like drug for depression gets UK licence

Psychiatrists divided on 'game-changing' esketamine due to potential for addiction

A radical ketamine-like drug has been licensed for use in the UK for severe depression, a decision that offers hope to the millions of patients for whom conventional treatments have failed.

Esketamine, taken as a nasal spray, is one of the first rapid-acting drugs for depression and the first in decades that is thought to work in a fundamentally different way in the brain. However, psychiatrists are divided on the benefits, with some hailing esketamine as a game-changer and others raising fears about the potential for addiction and abuse.