The results of two new studies may signal a substantial shift in the way psychiatrists and researchers think about treatment for severely depressed patients.

兩項研究結果將可能從根本上改變精神病醫生和研究人員在重癥抑郁癥患者的治療方法上的思路。

In one, government researchers found that an injection of a powerful anesthetic drug dissolved feelings of despair in a small group of severely depressed patients in a matter of hours, and that the effect lasted for up to a week in some participants.

第一項是政府的研究人員發現，給小部分重癥抑郁癥患者注射強效麻醉劑可以在大約1小時內緩解他們的絕望情緒；對于某些患者，這種效果甚至可以持續一個禮拜。

Doctors cautioned that the study was very small, and that the drug, ketamine, is a tightly controlled substance sometimes used as a club drug that can cause hallucinations, confusion and dangerous reactions, especially when ingested in unknown doses.

醫生警告說這是一項小范圍的實驗，所使用的麻醉劑克他命是一種受到嚴格監控的藥物。這種藥物有時候在一些俱樂部里用作迷幻藥，它能夠使人產生幻覺，意識模糊甚至產生其他非常危險的反應，尤其是在吸入劑量不當的情況下。

In the other, psychiatrists in New York found evidence that antidepressant drugs significantly increased the risk that some children and adolescents would attempt or commit suicide. Doctors have debated this risk for years, but the authors of the study were skeptical of it, and their report may sway others.

另外一項是紐約的精神病醫生發現抗抑郁藥物明顯增加了兒童和青少年采取自殺行為的風險。醫生們就這一風險辯論了數年，但研究報告的作者對是否有必要繼續辯論表示懷疑，他們的報告會改變一些人的立場。

Both studies are being published in The Archives of General Psychiatry.

兩項研究報告都在《普通精神醫學紀要》中出版。

In the first study, Dr. Carlos A. Zarate of the National Institute of Mental Health led a team of researchers who treated 18 chronically depressed men and women with the anesthetic ketamine.

在第一項研究中，美國國家心理健康研究所卡洛斯·A·扎拉博士領導的研究人員們用麻醉劑克他命治療了18例慢性抑郁癥男女患者。

Five participants recovered from depression in the first day and were still significantly improved a week later. Most patients also received a placebo treatment during the study, an injection of saline solution, and showed no improvement.

5例患者在接受治療的第一天就有所恢復，并在一周以后明顯改善。大多數患者在研究過程在中同時還接受了安慰劑治療，即一種鹽溶劑注射劑，但沒有什么效果。

Dr. Zarate said experimenting with novel approaches was crucial because the current crop of antidepressant drugs worked slowly and weakly, if at all, for millions of patients.

扎拉博士說，新的治療方法的實驗至關重要，因為現行的抗抑郁劑藥物對數百萬的患者來講，即便有效，其效果也很慢，作用也很小。

Ketamine affects the brain in a way entirely different from drugs like Prozac, and it has shown some antidepressant effects in animal studies. It had not been tried for depression in humans.

克他命對大腦的影響與其他藥物像普羅薩克（氟苯氧苯胺）完全不同。克他命在動物實驗中已經表現出了抗抑郁效果，在目前還沒有用于人類抑郁癥的治療。

“What the study tells us is that we can break this sound barrier, in effect, and get an almost immediate response that we cannot get with other drugs,”Dr. Zarate said.

“通過研究，我們知道我們可以在治療上打破局限，將其用于人類抑郁癥的治療，同時我們迅速得出結論：我們沒有別的更好的藥物可用。”

Ketamine is not approved for depression, and it has a checkered past in psychiatric research. The drug often induces hallucinations, like whispering voices and light trails, and researchers used it in the 1990's to induce psychotic reactions in people with schizophrenia-an experiment widely criticized as unethical.

克他命沒有獲得允許用于治療抑郁癥，在精神病研究方面過去一直充滿變數。該藥物通常會導致出現幻覺，像聽到低低的聲音或看見燈光的痕跡。研究人員在20世紀90年代曾使用克他命誘導精神分裂癥患者的精神反應，但這一實驗卻遭到廣泛的批判，被認為是違背了職業道德。

Dr. Zarate said that neither doctors nor patients should use it for depression outside of carefully controlled research settings and that the results of the current trial should be considered suggestive.“This drug should be seen as a tool for understanding what mechanisms might be involved in rapid relief,”and not as a treatment, Dr. Zarate said.

扎拉博士認為，無論是病人還是醫生都絕對不可以在沒有進行嚴格的醫學實驗的前提下使用克他命治療抑郁癥，本次的實驗結果只能作為參考。扎拉博士表示：“該藥物應該被看作是一種工具，幫助我們了解何種藥物可以快速起效，”但不能作為一種治療方法。

The study of suicide risk, led by Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, was based on an analysis of Medicaid records of more than 4,400 people who were hospitalized for depression in 1999 and 2000.

自殺危機的研究是由哥倫比亞大學的馬克·奧佛森博士和紐約州立精神病研究所牽頭，依據1999年2000年因抑郁癥住院的4400多人的醫療記錄進行分析。

The researchers found no link between the antidepressant drugs and suicidal behavior in depressed patients 19 or older. But children and adolescents in the study who were taking antidepressants were about 50 percent more likely than those not on the drugs to try to kill themselves. And they were about 15 times as likely as those not on the medications to complete the act, although the number of suicides was too small to draw definitive conclusions, the authors cautioned.

研究人員發現抗抑郁劑和自殺行為在19歲或更大年齡的患者身上二者沒有聯系。但是服用抗抑郁劑的兒童和青少年比未服用看抑郁劑的兒童和青少年嘗試采取自殺行為的比例要高50%.報告的作者警告說，盡管自殺的人數很少，還不足以得出最終的結論，但他們實施和完成自殺行為是未服用藥物的兒童和青少年的15倍。

In addition, there could be differences between the two groups that the Medicaid records didn't reveal：the children who received the drugs may have been more severely ill, skewing the results, they said.

除此之外，他們說，還有一些區別醫學記錄并沒有揭示：接受藥物治療的兒童可能已經病情十分嚴重了，這也使得研究結果有所偏離。

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration required strong warnings on the labels of antidepressant drugs alerting parents and doctors of a possible suicide risk in some children. Since then many psychiatrists have been skeptical of the suicide link.

在2004年，國家食品藥品監督管理局要求在康抑郁劑商標上鄭重提醒父母和醫生防止一些兒童因此產生的自殺危機。從那時開始，許多精神病醫師就開始懷疑抗抑郁劑與自殺是否存在聯系。

“I was surprised by what we found,”Dr. Olfson said.“I set out thinking we'd find that the drugs”significantly reduced suicide risk.

奧弗森博士說：“我們的研究結果讓我很吃驚。我開始琢磨我們得找到明顯降低自殺風險的藥物。”

The findings may prompt researchers to look at which children are most at risk, rather than continuing to debate whether the risk exists, he said.

他指出，研究結果將促使研究人員去研究那些兒童面臨的自殺風險最大，而不是沒完沒了的辯論這種風險是否存在。