When you hear about ketamine, you may associate it with being an illegal party drug that causes vivid hallucinations. But it's also a powerful anesthetic, listed on the World Health Organisation's list of essential medicines.

"If you have patients that are likely to seriously injure themselves or kill themselves within a short period of time, and they've tried the standard treatments, how do you not offer this treatment?"

TED Talk:
The path to better medicine is paved with accidental yet revolutionary discoveries. In this well-told tale of how science happens, neuroscientist Rebecca Brachman shares news of a serendipitous breakthrough treatment that may prevent mental disorders like depression and PTSD from ever developing. And listen for an unexpected — and controversial — twist.

Researchers know how to boost mice's resilience to stress, but can the same techniques be used for humans? Brachman's results consistently showed that there are ways to build resilience to stress, by both injecting immune cells from another animal and giving a dose of ketamine prior to stress.

Is there a link between pain and depression? Pain and depression are closely related. Depression can cause pain — and pain can cause depression.

There might be a drug out there that somehow instills the kind of mental resilience that lets some people go through a horrible experience without reliving it in a distressing way afterward. Not everyone who goes through trauma gets depressed, but those who do have a hard time shaking it. What if instead of treating that depression, it could be prevented?