From dangerous party drug to the toast of doctors fighting against depression, ketamine — or Special-K — might become the latest pharmaceutical scourge-turned-savior.

Clinical trials focused on ketamine’s abilities as a fast-acting, long-lasting treatment for severe depression are raising eyebrows — and questions — throughout America’s medical community.

The drug, which is a staple anesthetic in emergency rooms and burn units, has many things going for it.

It’s cheap, widely available and able to be prescribed by doctors for off-label use. Unlike traditional antidepressants, its positive effects don’t take days or weeks to manifest; they take minutes or hours. And they can be dramatic and long-lasting.

A study at Yale University found that ketamine can actually promote the growth or restoration of neurologic connections in a person’s brain.

That’s amazing news for people suffering from debilitating depression, the kind that shrugs off mood stabilizers and traditional antidepressants, that inflicts internal suffering, physical pain and perhaps, ultimately, suicide on its victims.

It’s not exactly breaking news, either. Numerous medical trials of the drug have been published since 2006. Ketamine clinics, where patients pay money to receive low dose, intravenous infusions of the drug, have been operating since 2011. The Ketamine Advocacy Network, founded by ketamine trial volunteers, estimates there are as many as 50 such clinics in operation nationwide today.

But it’s only more recently that ketamine has begun making national news, sparking public conversations about its use and questions about where doctors and patients go from here. The American Psychiatric Association is expected to approve its use for depression early this year, according to The Washington Post. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved ketamine for the treatment of mood disorders,

Some doctors, pointing out that ketamine can spark changes in heart rate and blood pressure, say more research needs to be done to understand the drug’s long-term effects. And while its applications with depression patients are confined to infusions that amount to a fraction of what a recreational abuser would use, long-term abusers of the drug have been reported to experience bladder problems and cognitive defects.

Scientists say more work needs to be done to figure out proper dosing. There is also currently no registry for tracking the number of patients being treated for depression with ketamine.

Yet again we are at a point where a drug’s potential usefulness to patients is complicated by a lack of information about its potential harms, an absence of a proper regulatory system governing its application, and the decidedly slow machinations of government officials regarding approved uses.

Because ketamine for depression is prescribed off-label, many insurers don’t cover the cost of the infusions, which can run patients anywhere from $300 to $1,000 per treatment.

Depression is a sinister, pervasive and deadly disease. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 15.7 million adults in the United States had at least one major episode in 2014. The patients battling against it every day deserve medical care that is both responsible and expeditious.

For them, drugs like ketamine hold untapped promise.