11–20 of 215 posts
My girlfriend receives ketamine treatment for her depression, so I’ve the results first hand. It’s truly astounding. She’s seen more improvement from the ketamine than from a decade of psychotherapy and traditional psychopharmacology. The only downside is the cost (it’s not covered by insurance) and the potential that there are long term side effects that have yet to be discovered. We pay $375 for a 40-minute infusio…
My girlfriend receives ketamine treatment for her depression, so I’ve the results first hand. It’s truly astounding. She’s seen more improvement from the ketamine than from a decade of psychotherapy and traditional psychopharmacology. The only downside is the cost (it’s not covered by insurance) and the potential that there are long term side effects that have yet to be discovered. We pay $375 for a 40-minute infusio…
Some other tidbits of information:
- only thing that seemed to work even after TMS and other treatments.
- New pathways (SF and San Mateo locations) is really good.
- more and more treatment places opening up in different cities etc.
- uber assist or drive the patient home (full lucidity afterwards but you don’t want to drive).
- long-term benefits aren’t apparent after the first two treatments. After the third it seemed to last for 2-3 days. After the fourth longer.
- it really seems like a ‘break out of depression’ breakthrough treatment. Though no cure all (talk therapy or a good support system is important too).
- ketamine is used for many purposes (anesthesia, etc.). When given for depression it’s given in much low dosages (presumably without harmful liver or kidney side effects).
- usually the patient listens to music with headphones while the infusion is in progress.
- a nurse monitors BP and heart rate etc., but so far there have been no compications other than a nurse who was bad at putting in an IV (once).
- feel very thankful for it.
- I could see it going mainstream in the near future.
@HN's chemists - I was under the impression regular ketamine use caused irreversible bladder damage[0] - Is that due to much higher recreational dosage vs medical, or would this be something that couldn't be prescribed long-term? [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/29811499/k-bladder-the...
Ketamine is an anesthetic. Has anyone compared it to e.g. ibuprofen for this use case? Ibuprofen works very well for me when experiencing depressive symptoms. I'm down to about 2h max per depressive episode (logged at 10-30 depressing thoughts per minute, compared to none after). Mechanism intuitively "feels" inflammatory and looking at my logs seems related to exhaustion due to over-productivity, lack of rest, etc.
@HN's chemists - I was under the impression regular ketamine use caused irreversible bladder damage[0] - Is that due to much higher recreational dosage vs medical, or would this be something that couldn't be prescribed long-term? [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/29811499/k-bladder-the...
Most of the studies of using ketamine to treat depression are using under 1 gram per month.
Infrequent use of ketamine (less than once a week, less than 1 g), whether medical or recreational has no negative side effects.
It's also unknown whether it's actually caused by ketamine, or by whatever is being used to cut street ket.
Ketamine is an anesthetic. Has anyone compared it to e.g. ibuprofen for this use case? Ibuprofen works very well for me when experiencing depressive symptoms. I'm down to about 2h max per depressive episode (logged at 10-30 depressing thoughts per minute, compared to none after). Mechanism intuitively "feels" inflammatory and looking at my logs seems related to exhaustion due to over-productivity, lack of rest, etc.
The real question is, how long do the effects last and what are the side effects.