Depression is a debilitating condition, and medication can take weeks to provide relief. Suicide is a risk, and potential consequence. Psychiatry, as a discipline, has long sought a drug that might provide rapid resolution of both depressive symptoms, as well as suicidal thoughts. Could an anaesthetic agent, ketamine, be that drug? This week, Prof. Bonga Chiliza, a psychiatrist, and Dr Alan Howard, an emergency care physician, provide some answers.