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Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

bbc.co.uk

101–110 of 215 posts

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#101

I've heard that ketamine usage long term can affect your microbiome [0], which seems to play a much greater role in depression that previously thought [1]. Has anyone had similar experiences? [0] https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/health/2011/03/20/ketam... [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016622361...

From what we know now, nearly every habitual behavior is likely to affect your biome. Excersize still has a larger effect than most drugs, but we can't seem to perscribe it.

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#102
post #85

Just as a different perspective ketamine is (and was) pretty common in my circle and the idea that it works as anti depressant slowly faded. It never really worked for me as that, at least not more than lsd or so would. And some friends claim that it has way less effect on them today even thought it seemed have to worked before. It may is the abuse (probably higher amount on some occasions) it may are long term effec…

Mowing up a gram of ket every weekend is going to kill any therapeutic benefits you get from it. That's different to a small dose once a month in a medically supervised environment. One big problem with recreational drugs (from personal experience) is that you get conditioned to them if you overuse them, then life seems sort of shit without them. With MDMA, you can even permanently lose the magic if you take too much…

Pretty sure the permanent damage thing is mostly a myth except you talk about a Seratonin syndrome which however doesn't increase in probability with the frequency you take it (mdma)

I am not sure what the medical amount for ketamin would be, but i would think the average is more around 100mg a month (and using about every 3) within my circle. Which is not exactly that much.

As far as I know are long term studies still lacking of a proper sample size as well.

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#103
post #14
post #7

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…

Can confirm. I’m in a similar boat. 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 t…

How easy would it be to do this at home by snorting half a gram but over the course of an hour?

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#105
post #87
post #7

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…

> We pay $375 for a 40-minute infusion Having no knowledge on the matter, what's the price comparison to just buying ketamine illegally and taking it without a doctor's help? Depression is like (or possibly is ) a form of chronic pain. People suffering from it severely might be willing to do anything for relief. Here's good information that a currently-illegal drug can help but if you want to do it legally you might…

[deleted]

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#106
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We pay $375 for a 40-minute infusion Having no knowledge on the matter, what's the price comparison to just buying ketamine illegally and taking it without a doctor's help? Depression is like (or possibly is ) a form of chronic pain. People suffering from it severely might be willing to do anything for relief. Here's good information that a currently-illegal drug can help but if you want to do it legally you might…

Ket will set you back anywhere from $50-$150 per gram, depending on where in the world you are, and is of varying quality. It looks like they're using up to 1/2 a gram for treatment. I think the most of that $375 goes towards staffing costs, rather than the drug itself. Ketamine though legitimate channels costs about $5-$10 per gram from what I've heard.

I think that the new part of this publication that they now have an easy to administer nose spray.

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#107
post #69
post #7

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…

Infusion? Goodness grace, I got belonephobia and got scared shitless there. It doesn't have to be administered intravenous. The article is mainly referring to a nasal spray.

Yes, but is just the latest study.

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#109

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.

Pain killers can affect your emotional state indeed:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/painkillers-might-...

Re: Ketamine has 'fast-acting benefits' for depression

#110
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't ketamine stimulate growth in the same areas of the brain that exercise does, and does therapy prescribe routine daily exercise? I can imagine there being a great short term benefit to ketamine, as people who are severely depressed can't exercise due to the depression. Has there been any mention switching from ketamine to daily exercise, or doing both?

I know exercise is good for depression, but this is an extremely patronising response to someone else's description of their medical treatment.

How is it patronising? GP is asking two questions. Maybe there's some subtle subtext that I'm missing, but even then it seems better to assume the more favorable interpretation that he's just asking questions.
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