Ketamine Infusions for Depression

[Halem1982]

Has anyone here tried ketamine infusions to treat depression? If so, what was your experience like with it?

[dubstepMaul]

Hi Halem. I have a friend whose daughter got ketamine injections for depression, I don't have any details but I do know that it helped her very much, when nothing else did.

[Halem1982 in reply to dubstepMaul]

That’s encouraging! Most places seem to recommend a total of 6 infusions then I haven’t gotten a consistent response regarding a follow up schedule for booster infusions every so often. I have an annoying habit of over complicating things so instead of doing as much research as I would have liked to, I scheduled an appointment with the first place at the top of my google search. I had the infusion done on August 10th and during the treatment, I felt strange but not in a bad way. It actually felt great physically but it was just different than anything I had ever experienced. The clinic told me not to eat or drink anything for 6 hours before my appointment, and they recommended I take all of my meds except any benzodiazepines. My infusion lasted 40 minutes then they gave me a 20 minute recovery period before I could leave. I don’t want to go back to this place because it felt more like an anesthesiologist based clinic than a mental health centric facility. They were extremely vague about suggesting a schedule to do the initial set of six infusions, which made it seem like they weren’t necessarily passionate about the new way to potentially treat severe depression. I’m sorry but if I was a dr on the front end of what could be a game changer in the way depression is treated with +/-70% success rates, I think I’d be really excited to share that excitement with my hypothetical patients.

Now that I have a baseline to compare to other clinics that offer infusions, I’ve been making calls to local places in Houston and to some places on the west coast. I’ve spoken to a few places and asked what their process is like and the one in Beverly Hills and another one in Houston were both adamant about not spacing the infusions out too far apart, especially the first two treatments. Their infusions both last 60 minutes vs the one I did that was only 40 minutes. It’s highly unlikely I will ever go to the first place again but now I know more about what I want from the next place I try.

FYI, I was more functional for the two weeks following my treatment on 8/10 than I had been in a while. I kind of went back into a slump this past Sunday but I’m not as bad as I was before my first infusion. To be continued...

[dubstepMaul in reply to Halem1982]

That's great that you are looking into all this. Regarding the spacing/timing of the injections, I think my friend's daughter was getting them once a month.

I wish you the best. Keep us posted.

[Lovinit]

Have you ever looked into trying mushrooms? Taking the right amount and being in the right environment, I’ve had great results

[Halem1982 in reply to Lovinit]

Is that the same thing as microdosing? Did you have it done at a dr’s office? I definitely want to know more about this because it has been years since I’ve genuinely felt hope like I feel now. It’s been a while since we last checked on one another so how are you doing?

[Lovinit in reply to Halem1982]

Not sure what microdosing is. I still have your number let me know if you want to chat over the phone and when’s a good time to call you. I’ll tell you more about my mushroom experiences

[58inahurry in reply to Lovinit]

hiya lovinit, i am responding to yr reply to halem 1982. Microdosing is what you describe in yr post aboiut yr experiences with mushrooms. I have friends who eschew these benefits and apparently the secret lies in the amount you use'? One is not looking for a high as such but using them as a tool, is that right?

[clintalan]

Tried it at a shady place that uses injections instead of IVs. Did the whole series with no success. My brother did an IV series and claims it helped him, but you couldn’t tell from his behavior.

[lodopo]

Your story and symptoms seem more trauma related. Are you in Therapy? this was posted a while ago, I hope things have improved.