It is right to be skeptical of using the actual compound with its negatives (for instance, the hallucinogenic / dissociative properties of ketamine and the neur

It is right to be skeptical of using the actual compound with its negatives (for instance, the hallucinogenic / dissociative properties of ketamine and the neurotransmitter depletion of MDMA.) However, it is possible that illegal recreational compounds can shed some light on body chemistry, and I think that's what happened here. The "ketamine is an antidepressant" story has been around for a while. It was considered kind of a deal because everything about depression previously dealt with serotonin, and ketamine clearly has nothing to do with serotonin. Consequently there's people working on compounds with similar actions, but without ketamine's ill effects. The closest one I know to production is this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapastinel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapastinel Which, as a Phase III "breakthrough candidate", still has a long way to go, of course. This new study is significant, though, if it is not the NMDA receptor that is really creating ketamine's anti-depressant effects. It may allow for alternate compounds to be explored beyond even what is being worked on now.