FSU College of Medicine researcher Mohamed Kabbaj found that ketamine decreased alcohol consumption in male rats that had previously consumed high amounts of alcohol. “What makes ketamine interesting…is that it reduced alcohol intake, and the effect was long-lasting even after we stopped ketamine treatment,” Kabbaj says.
This may make ketamine a tool for treating depression. Kabbaj’s research is a step toward learning more about ketamine and its interactions with alcohol, the number one drug abused by depressed patients. Ketamine did not affect high-alcohol female rats. Clinical studies for men and for women are needed before ketamine is used as a therapy for alcoholism in either sex.
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