FDA approves new Johnson & Johnson drug for depression

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first new kind of drug to treat depression since Prozac hit the scene in the late 1980s. Spravato is a nasal spray from Johnson & Johnson that’s a close cousin of ketamine, an anesthetic that’s sometimes used recreationally and often known as “Special K.” Because ketamine can cause hallucinations and out-of-body experiences, the new drug must be administered in a clinical setting. The drug is designed to start working in hours instead of weeks. It’s meant to treat people who have not found relief through other antidepressants. That’s about 5 million of the 16 million Americans with depression.

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Correction (March 6, 2019): A previous version of this story misspelled Spravato. The text has been corrected.