does ketamine have therapeutic potential to "cure depression"?

that's hilarious. really.

it seems, somewhat unsurprisingly, that when they give people the drug, they report feeling good for a little while, but, that those feelings wear off after a bit. that would appear to be because they get high and then come down. now, if your definition of a "cure for depression" is getting high to distract you from it, then i guess that fits the definition. frankly, i'm not convinced of the premise that depression is a physical disorder, or at least not up to random experiences that just reduce to reactions to natural variation in hormone levels, and the idea of treating depression with drugs at all strikes me as going about it the entirely wrong way; sure, you could just get high, and feel better for a bit, but you're not actually addressing the issues, or dealing with the problems that have led you to the state of depression.

there may be some caveats, for specific people that are specifically missing the ability to generate, regulate or reuptake certain neurochemicals, which would be the result of some kind of genetic error, and, again, probably mostly random and not inherited in construction; in these people, which would be rare in the diagnosed population, the inability to produce a specific hormone would be a function of faulty body chemistry, and the fact that the drugs are doing it for them is overcoming that particular issue. but, then, why not figure out what the actual transmitter is that they can't produce, and just give them that instead? for these cases, careful experimentation with ketamine may help pinpoint the exact faulty neurotransmitter, but the preferred treatment option in the end is going to be to key in on the actual missing chemical, rather than try to reconstruct it with ketamine by brute force. further, if you're going to do these trials, you should probably use something a little less invasive, like mdma. these drugs all operate using roughly the same pathways, even if the somewhat different results of consuming magic mushrooms is actually the result of your body attacking the delivery mechanism (the mushroom) as a pathogen (which is true, look it up).

so, i can accept some experimental use for ketamine in determining the actual problem hormone in cases where a neurotransmitter issue can actually be shown to actually, really exist.

but, is it a cure?

no.

that's absurd.