A recent trial in the UK has shown that the illegal party drug ketamine can be an ‘exciting’ 
new treatment for depression. The doctors involved say some patients who have faced incurable depression for decades have had symptoms disappear within hours of taking low doses of the drug.
The small trial on 28 people, reported in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, shows the benefits can last months. Experts said the findings opened up a whole new avenue of research.
But it is not yet known what long-term affects ketamine could have and whether it will be a ‘cure’, say the doctors who said the duration of the effect is still a problem.
In the trial, some relapse within days, while others have found they benefit for around three months and have since had additional doses of ketamine. There are also some serious side-effects including one case of the supply of blood to the brain being interrupted.
Doctors say people should not try to self-medicate because of the serious risk to health outside of a hospital setting.
Hypnotherapist Paul Howard, marketing director for the National Council for Hypnotherapy, commented on this report. He said: “Regardless of the drugs used to counter depression they’re not going to have a long term effect unless the underlying though processes are addressed.
“By using hypnotherapy we are able to help the sufferer reframe the thoughts that are leading them to a cycle of depressive thinking and therefore enabling them to lift the veil of depression.”
Professional members of the National Council for Hypnotherapy have approved track record of success in treating depression.
A hypnotherapist, who has experience of working with people to overcome depression, can help the sufferer to understand the impact of the past, to focus on the present in order to work towards the desired future. In the main NCH members would treat mild and moderate depression with hypnotherapy. Some have specialist training and will work with severe, clinical and bi-polar depression if it is within their sphere of competence.
Depression is common and affects one-in-10 people at some point in their lives and is the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain, according to a review of research.
The disease should be treated as a global public health priority, experts reported in the journal PLOS Medicine. The study compared clinical depression with more than 200 other diseases and injuries as a cause of disability.
Finally, depression can make sufferers appear physically older by speeding up the ageing process in cells, according to a study. Lab tests showed cells looked biologically older in people who were severely depressed or who had been in the past.
These visible differences in a measure of cell ageing called telomere length couldn’t be explained by other factors, such as whether a person smoked.
So, if you are prone to feeling depressed, get hold of a hypnotherapist near you by using the NCH’s directory and begin to turn your life around.