Chatting with a Ketamine User
from Chatting With Hosted by Andrew Hales
"Ketamine has been found to be a rapid-acting antidepressant in depression, for instance in major depressive disorder, treatment-resistant depression, and bipolar depression. It also may be effective in rapidly alleviating suicidal ideation, although based on lower quality evidence. The rapid-onset antidepressant effects of ketamine were first shown in small studies in 2000 and 2006. They have since been demonstrated and characterized in subsequent studies. A single low, sub-anesthetic dose of ketamine given via intravenous infusion may produce antidepressant effects within four hours in people with depression. These antidepressant effects persist for at least a week following a single infusion. This is in contrast to conventional antidepressants like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), which generally require at least several weeks for their benefits to occur and become maximal. Moreover, based on the available preliminary evidence, the magnitude of the antidepressant effects of ketamine appears to be more than double that of conventional antidepressants. On the basis of these findings, a 2017 review described ketamine as the single most important advance in the treatment of depression in over 50 years. It has sparked interest in NMDA receptor antagonists for depression, and has shifted the direction of antidepressant research and development." - wikipedia
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