{"id":62639,"date":"2025-04-30T10:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T10:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/62639\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T10:08:16","slug":"new-ketamine-type-nasal-spray-can-help-30000-australians-suffering-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/62639\/","title":{"rendered":"New ketamine-type nasal spray can help 30,000 Australians suffering depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">A new nasal spray, that\u2019s chemically similar to Ketamine, is being added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, for adults with treatment resistant depression.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Spravato\u00ae (Esketamine) is the first new type of depression medicine to be added to the PBS in 30 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Professor Ian Hickie AO, Co-Director of Health and Policy, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney says Spravato targets a different chemical in the brain, than traditional antidepressants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-cvgehw-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download today <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/right-red-arrow.92bca5db.svg.svg+xml\" alt=\"Download today\" height=\"14\" width=\"20\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cTreatment resistant depression is a very important and a very disabling illness in Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">About one in seven Australians has a depressive illness, about two thirds of those will respond to commonly available psychological or medical treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cYou will not be able to get this medicine from your GP and take it home and squirt it up your own nose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Instead, it will be provided under strict medical supervision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Twice a week at first, weekly for the next month, and then weekly or fortnightly until depressive symptoms improve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The treatment will only be given to patients who have not responded adequately to at least two different antidepressants of adequate dose and duration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Pensioner or concession card holders will pay just $7.70 and general patients will pay $31.60 for each dose of the medicine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Veteran Garth Camac has been living with treatment resistant depression for 15 years, and untreated depression for 15 before that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt is an expensive medication and having it added to the PBS is a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">During his service in the Australian Army, he was deployed to Iraq twice.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/c2e6b50a7dbcdc823c5a518840d843d3c454f3ad-16x9-x0y0w1280h720.jpg\" alt=\"Garth Camac during his service in the Australian Army, where he faced both physical and emotional battles that led to his ongoing fight with treatment-resistant depression.\" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Garth Camac during his service in the Australian Army, where he faced both physical and emotional battles that led to his ongoing fight with treatment-resistant depression. Credit: Garth Camac<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In Malaysia, completing training, five of his men died in a horrific car accident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Life after war was a battle he couldn\u2019t seem to win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI\u2019ve been in a really uncomfortable place where I\u2019ve had to decide whether or not today is the day to kill myself, or can I go a little bit further.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI had no plans to be alive at 50.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He\u2019s now 52.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">For the past two years, he\u2019s been taking Spravato.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIt\u2019s taken me two years to get to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI enjoy being out in public now, I\u2019m not scanning for danger, I\u2019m not worrying that something will explode.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\"><strong>If you or someone you know is struggling:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"List css-1hqo8ex-StyledUnorderedList-StyledBaseList ev5pl0r2\">\n<li class=\"css-ixstzk-StyledTextListItem-StyledListItem ev5pl0r3\"><strong>Open Arms (for veterans and families): 1800 011 046<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"css-ixstzk-StyledTextListItem-StyledListItem ev5pl0r3\"><strong>Lifeline: 13 11 14<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"css-ixstzk-StyledTextListItem-StyledListItem ev5pl0r3\"><strong>Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/news\/inquest-into-mass-killings-at-bondi-junction-begins-as-coroner-told-stabber-had-preoccupation-with-death--c-18511174\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>Stabber had \u2018preoccupation with death\u2019 before Bondi Junction rampage <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new nasal spray, that\u2019s chemically similar to Ketamine, is being added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[535,105,32351,388,218,12,1093,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-62639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-drugs","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-wellbeing","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-public-health","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114426367477706156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}