Enlarge (credit: Wikimedia) While we have a number of treatments available for clinical depression, many of them have a significant side effects, and a lot of people struggle to find a drug that they respond to. The situation is made worse by our limited understanding of the biology underlying depression. We don't know how to create targeted drugs, so most of the available treatments are blunt instruments that can take weeks to months before having an effect. In that light, it came as a bit of a shock when we discovered a drug we'd been using recreationally and for anesthesia could lift the symptoms of depression in less than 24 hours.