Jeff Winograd had been battling depression since he was 20 years old. He had tried every antidepressant on the market, but nothing seemed to work. The depression had become a constant in his life. By the time Winograd was 45, he was a father of two and struggling as a film and video producer in Portland, OR. His depression had become so severe that he felt paralyzed by it.
“I sat on the couch all day, unable to move, I couldn’t move my feet,” he says. “And I was suicidal. I would sit and try to figure out how I was going to do it without hurting my kids.”
It was at this low point that a doctor friend suggested ketamine for his treatment-resistant depression.
First used as an anesthesia medicine for animals in Belgium in the 1960s, ketamine didn’t find its way to human treatment until the FDA approved it as an anesthetic in 1970. It was then used to treat wounded soldiers during the Vietnam War. Its antidepressant effects were discovered by doctors who gave it to agitated patients, such as those who had attempted suicide.
The drug causes a “dissociative experience” or what most would call a “trip.” It has also become a club drug, known as K, Special K, Super K, or Vitamin K, among other names. Partiers would inject it, add it to drinks, snort it, or include it in joints or cigarettes.
However, there are serious risks associated with ketamine, including unconsciousness, high blood pressure, dangerously slowed breathing, ulcers and bladder pain, kidney problems, stomach pain, depression, and poor memory. Ketamine can also be fatal when abused with alcohol or taken while drunk.
