Ketamine Is A Miracle Drug?

[georgelox]

I have found interesting article about Ketamine is a new treatment for depression and even erectile dysfunction. Sounds promising. Going to find decent doctor who is using ketamine infusions. Thoughts?

Edited April 8, 2017 by georgelox

[exchemist]

I have found interesting article about Ketamine is a new treatment for depression and even erectile dysfunction. Sounds promising. Going to find decent doctor who is using ketamine infusions. Thoughts?

It seems likely to knacker your bladder and give you hallucinations. Not a very good idea.  

[georgelox]

No hallucinations with sub-anesthetic doses (0.3 mg/kg or less).

Ketamine Infusions for Depression and Anxiety - Ketamine

Ketamine – Experimental Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction

Edited April 8, 2017 by georgelox

[CraigD]

Welcome to hypography, George. :)

 

I have found interesting article about Ketamine is a new treatment for depression and even erectile dysfunction. Sounds promising. Going to find decent doctor who is using ketamine infusions. Thoughts?

Do you have a link to that article?

 

Though used primarily as an anesthetic and a post-operative or chronic pain-killer, Ketamine has been used to treat major and bi-polar depression, as best I can tell, since around 2000. From what I gather from a quick read of a few references, it’s efficacy in long-term depression treatment is low, it’s best psychiatric use being short-term, emergency use, as an alternative to the more traditional benzodiazepines.

 

Ketamine’s benefits vs. similar drugs include very low risk of accidental lethal overdose and low-to-moderate potential for addiction. Drawbacks include that it usually injected (though some oral and topical applications have been tried, they’re much less predictable and effective), and that in typical therapeutic doses, it impairs normal function and judgement – in short, it gets the user strongly, weirdly, debilitatingly (and IMO, unpleasantly) stoned. I believe all of the deaths attributed to Keatmine are due to accidents, especially drowning and exposure, rather than overdose.

 

I’m surprised to hear mention of Ketamine as an ED treatment, and couldn’t find any evidence of that in any medical literature. It’s implicated in erectile problems, but that mostly due to urinary tract problems resulting from long-term use. As best I can tell, it has no short-term effect, good or bad, on a man’s ability to have and sustain an erection.

 

From all this, I doubt that Ketamine is a good replacement for more traditional drugs, such as SSRIs. If you taking an anti-depressant and are troubled by ED, which many of them certainly can cause, I’d recommend discussing a change in drug or dosage with you prescribing doctor.

 

In 2013 there were some optimistic expectations that Lanicemine, (such as this New Scientist article) which is pharmacologically similar to Ketamine, might treat depression well, without Ketamine’s debilitating, “stoned” side-effects, but following up, I see that the effects were found to be to short-acting to be beneficial enough to bring a drug to market, and work on the drug was stopped.

 

In short, I don’t think Ketamine is a “miracle drug”. I don’t think there really are psychiatric miracle drugs – drugs can be useful, but I think the most important thing is good communication with a good psychiatrist. Finding a doctor who works well with you, in my experience, is more critical than finding a drug.

[Super Polymath]

Welcome to hypography, George. :)

 

Do you have a link to that article?

 

Though used primarily as an anesthetic and a post-operative or chronic pain-killer, Ketamine has been used to treat major and bi-polar depression, as best I can tell, since around 2000. From what I gather from a quick read of a few references, it’s efficacy in long-term depression treatment is low, it’s best psychiatric use being short-term, emergency use, as an alternative to the more traditional benzodiazepines.

 

Ketamine’s benefits vs. similar drugs include very low risk of accidental lethal overdose and low-to-moderate potential for addiction. Drawbacks include that it usually injected (though some oral and topical applications have been tried, they’re much less predictable and effective), and that in typical therapeutic doses, it impairs normal function and judgement – in short, it gets the user strongly, weirdly, debilitatingly (and IMO, unpleasantly) stoned. I believe all of the deaths attributed to Keatmine are due to accidents, especially drowning and exposure, rather than overdose.

 

I’m surprised to hear mention of Ketamine as an ED treatment, and couldn’t find any evidence of that in any medical literature. It’s implicated in erectile problems, but that mostly due to urinary tract problems resulting from long-term use. As best I can tell, it has no short-term effect, good or bad, on a man’s ability to have and sustain an erection.

 

From all this, I doubt that Ketamine is a good replacement for more traditional drugs, such as SSRIs. If you taking an anti-depressant and are troubled by ED, which many of them certainly can cause, I’d recommend discussing a change in drug or dosage with you prescribing doctor.

 

In 2013 there were some optimistic expectations that Lanicemine, (such as this New Scientist article) which is pharmacologically similar to Ketamine, might treat depression well, without Ketamine’s debilitating, “stoned” side-effects, but following up, I see that the effects were found to be to short-acting to be beneficial enough to bring a drug to market, and work on the drug was stopped.

 

In short, I don’t think Ketamine is a “miracle drug”. I don’t think there really are psychiatric miracle drugs – drugs can be useful, but I think the most important thing is good communication with a good psychiatrist. Finding a doctor who works well with you, in my experience, is more critical than finding a drug.

Doesn't the body naturally make Ketamine if the brain is dying?

 

Like, I've heard that ketamine is the reason people see God or their family or have their lives flash before their eyes following a near-death experience.

 

Reminds me of

.

 

I OD'd on zzzquil when I was a kid and the high was just like dextromethmorphan but the comedown, on the other hand, pretty sure I got a ketamine high during the three days I was losing weight, shaking and unable to sleep. The ketamine from that did merc my depression and made me temporarily super altruistic. 

Edited April 9, 2017 by Super Polymath