Nasal spray approved for treating suicidal people

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Johnson & Johnson's Spravato has been approved as the first antidepressant for actively suicidal people, as doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about COVID-19's effect on the mental health of Americans.

The Food and Drug Administration approval means the quick-acting nasal spray will be available to people with suicidal thoughts and a plan to put them into action, said Michelle Kramer, vice president of J&J's U.S. neuroscience medical affairs unit. That constitutes 11% to 12% of as many as 17 million Americans who have major depressive disorder.

The data from studies of the drug show it "may offer clinicians a new way to provide support to patients quickly in the midst of an urgent depressive episode and help set them on the path to remission," said Gerard Sanacora, director of Yale's Depression Research Program and a trial investigator.

Spravato is a close chemical cousin of the anesthetic ketamine, which differs from existing antidepressants because it acts on the glutamate system in the brain rather than on serotonin or norepinepherine. Scientists have been working to better understand how the drug helps patients and why it works so quickly.

The drug's approval last year marked the first major breakthrough for depression since 1987.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-nasal-suicidal-people.html

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1. fascinating.

i mean, aside from that it's obviously very good news, the idea that a nasal spray might quickly interrupt the mental processes involved in acting on suicidal thoughts is fascinating.

[Phoenix61]

2. Things can be pretty trippy.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/psilocybin-depression-breakthrough-therapy.html