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Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#41

Post by arthur_pryor »

chimeracoder wrote: post #9
revscat wrote: post #5

While this is undeniably impressive and hopeful, it should be noted that these are short-term affects. The article mentions this: "So far, there is no evidence of addiction at the low dose in which infusions are delivered. Ketamine does, however, have one major limitation: Its relief is temporary. Clinical trials at NIMH have found that relapse usually occurs about a week after a single infusion." It then goes on to…

> Its relief is temporary. Clinical trials at NIMH have found that relapse usually occurs about a week after a single infusion." It then goes on to talk about possibly alleviating this with booster treatments. I know some people will naturally object to this, but to be honest - assuming people don't build up a tolerance to the effects[0], what's wrong with that? People are accustomed to taking all sorts of drugs on a…

if anything, for people who are trying to be functional, you'd want to gain tolerance to the recreational effects, but not the anti-depressant effects. tolerance to both seems more likely, but hopefully tolerance to the former outpaces the latter.

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#42

Post by joeyo »

1024core wrote: post #34
wavefunction wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd probably have to insufflate (snort) it. That's the recreational method for most users, at least.

Can't you just take a pill?

Many drugs undergo first-pass metabolism by the liver and their metabolites are much less active or much more non-specific. I don't know if that is the case for ketamine, but I suspect that it must be.

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#43

Post by is_it_worth_it_ »

pstuart wrote: post #38
ricksplat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

save the slurs for reddit too

Look, kid, you must be new here so I'll explain what's going on. HN frowns upon commentary that does not add to the discussion, e.g., jokes. In this case your joke was dismissive of a drug that holds promise for a lot of people (including some that I know). It has a stigma that it has to overcome to be used medically and your joke just piled on the stigma with an implicit snobbery that practically begged for a comeup…

get a life

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#44

Post by rincebrain »

chimeracoder wrote: post #9
revscat wrote: post #5

While this is undeniably impressive and hopeful, it should be noted that these are short-term affects. The article mentions this: "So far, there is no evidence of addiction at the low dose in which infusions are delivered. Ketamine does, however, have one major limitation: Its relief is temporary. Clinical trials at NIMH have found that relapse usually occurs about a week after a single infusion." It then goes on to…

> Its relief is temporary. Clinical trials at NIMH have found that relapse usually occurs about a week after a single infusion." It then goes on to talk about possibly alleviating this with booster treatments. I know some people will naturally object to this, but to be honest - assuming people don't build up a tolerance to the effects[0], what's wrong with that? People are accustomed to taking all sorts of drugs on a…

The basic problem is that it requires IV infusion, not oral or nasal administration (trials of the latter have issues with consistent dosage, AIUI), and that requires trips to a doctor to do, weekly.

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#45

Post by rincebrain »

Igglyboo wrote: post #30
_pmf_ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, when my depression gets really acute it basically means that I simply am unable to leave the house. You also would not really want to leave the house on Ketamine.

They aren't prescribing recreational doses, he would be perfectly functional and experience no dissociation whatsoever, it's something the drug community has been talking about for a long time. Lookup "microdosing" if you're interested, a lot of people do it with dissociatives or psychedelics and the point of it is to a below threshold dosage and avoid the typical drug high.

You're still in an "altered state" for an hour or so after an IV infusion, according to several practices I've seen offering the service - not necessarily dissociative or hallucinating, but definitely "out of it".

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#46

Post by pstuart »

is_it_worth_it_ wrote: post #43
pstuart wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, kid, you must be new here so I'll explain what's going on. HN frowns upon commentary that does not add to the discussion, e.g., jokes. In this case your joke was dismissive of a drug that holds promise for a lot of people (including some that I know). It has a stigma that it has to overcome to be used medically and your joke just piled on the stigma with an implicit snobbery that practically begged for a comeup…

get a life

Thank you for taking the time out to join our conversation. I hope it was worth it.

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#47

Post by ricksplat »

pstuart wrote: post #38
ricksplat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

save the slurs for reddit too

Look, kid, you must be new here so I'll explain what's going on. HN frowns upon commentary that does not add to the discussion, e.g., jokes. In this case your joke was dismissive of a drug that holds promise for a lot of people (including some that I know). It has a stigma that it has to overcome to be used medically and your joke just piled on the stigma with an implicit snobbery that practically begged for a comeup…

Pffff - totally

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#48

Post by rudolf0 »

mc808 wrote: post #10
refurb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like a silly statement. Treating a patient with a dose of ketamine includes a lot more costs than just the drug. If a patient comes in and gets an infusion of ketamine, even if the procedure only takes 1 hr (infuse and observe), you need to pay for the building, the nurse, the physician, all the backroom staff, etc. Hell, I go into my primary care doctor for an annual physician and it costs ~$200. I see th…

A bottle of Coke would be even more than $1.50 if you were legally required to pay a team of upper middle class salaried attendants to sit you in a very expensive chair in a very expensive building and hand-feed it to you. Don't get me wrong, that is how I would like to enjoy a Coke now and then, but it's good to have less luxurious options available at a lower price.

I agree with you. There needs to be something like insulin autoinjector pens, but for ketamine.

This increases the chances of abuse, but ensuring a prescription only lasts 6 doses or whatever would reduce that.

Hopefully once drug laws become a bit more relaxed, this will be seen as acceptable.

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#49

Post by md224 »

pstuart wrote: post #46
is_it_worth_it_ wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

get a life

Thank you for taking the time out to join our conversation. I hope it was worth it.

Some people just don't understand the importance of psychoactive drugs. It's sad.

Re: Research into ketamine as a treatment for severe depression

#50

Post by pstuart »

md224 wrote: post #49
pstuart wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for taking the time out to join our conversation. I hope it was worth it.

Some people just don't understand the importance of psychoactive drugs. It's sad.

Agreed. Some people don't understand the value of dialog as well. It's a pity, because that's the real value of HN.
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