Johnson & Johnson medication Spravato, a ketamine-based nasal spray, was approved Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a sole treatment for depression.

Spravato was first approved by the FDA for use alongside daily oral antidepressants in 2019 to treat adults with depression resistant to other forms of treatment.

On Tuesday, Spravato by itself was approved for adults who have not responded to at least two oral antidepressants, Johnson & Johnson said in a release.

About a third of Americans with major depressive disorder do not get results from taking an oral antidepressant alone, the pharmaceutical company said.

Spravato’s active ingredient is esketamine, a chemical derived from the dissociative and hallucinogenic anaesthetic ketamine.

In addition to its legitimate medical usage, some abuse ketamine recreationally as a party drug, the Drug Enforcement Administration warns on its website.

Due to the risk of abuse, misuse as well as adverse medical reactions to sedation and dissociation including shallow breathing, Spravato is only prescribed alone through a restrictive program.

This means that Spravato must be administered in a health-care setting and patients must be monitored for two hours after treatment, per the FDA website.

Spravato treats depression by targeting the neurotransmitter glutamate, the most common neurotransmitter in the human body, as opposed to other brain chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.