Reminder that the FDA seems to fast track the wrong drug:
They gave "breakthrough designation" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_therapy ) to Esketamine under pressure from Johnson & Johnson:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esketamine#Depression
Although Arketamine seems like it has a lot more responsibility for the antidepressant effect of racemic ketamine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arketamine#Novel_antidepressan...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxynorketamine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24316345 (2013)
http://www.cpn.or.kr/journal/view.html?doi=10.9758/cpn.2014.... (2014)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26327690 (2015)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4910398/ (2016)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5487269/#__sec4... (2017)
That isn't to say Esketamine doesn't have an antidepressant effect. In light of the fact that Esketamine makes you Trip Balls(tm) while Arketamine doesn't, I like to think of it this way:
You can likely get an antidepressant effect out of Esketamine in the same way that you can get an antidepressant effect out of psychdelics like LSD-25 & Psilocin. However, like those, it could possibly also make depression worse, and unlike Arketamine doesn't seem to represent anything awfully novel. It however also makes me suspect that like with other racemic drugs like Amphetamine, a shifted ratio preparation might make for a better drug overall than isolating the stereoisomers. For example, Adderall contains 75% dexamphetamine, 25% levoamphetamine, in the form of various amphetamine salts (wheras racemic amphetamine contains 50% of each, typically as a single salt.).
[Semi-related: I still don't comprehend why pharmaceutical companies have yet to create a combination preparation of Lisdexamfetamine with something like Lislevoamfetamine, - which I haven't seen synthesized but I don't see anything speaking against it -, in a ratio akin to the one seen in Adderall. The rational behind that ratio seems sound, albeit I'd perhaps go for an 80/20 split instead of a 75/25 split...]