The shorter duration is also more common with lower dose IV infusions. There is evidence that higher concentrations (usually delivered infra-muscularly or sublingually), and the k-hole experience OP describes delivers more long lasting results. In the Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy space, there is a lot of criticism of the infusion model of a nurse managing simultaneous infusions on several patients at sub-psychedelic doses as a cash treadmill, as opposed to a deeper psychedelic experience which can be more costly to deliver because ideally it demands pre and post integration plus administering to a group can be problematic if someone experiences a “bad trip”. With some preparation and screening a lot of the doses in a series can be managed at home though.
Re:Psychedelic drugs take on depression
by ad404b8a372f2b9 on Friday August 26, 2022 @05:29PM
(#32612974)
It definitely wasn't because of the accident, my life is ruined lol and at the time I was in horrific pain. But I can accept the timeline could be non-typical.
It could also be the huge dose, the studies I've seen use lighter doses.
Re:Psychedelic drugs take on depression
by nibbleshifter on Friday August 26, 2022 @06:49PM
(#32613647)
Smaller doses of ketamine (recreational doses) taken via nose tend to alleviate depression and anxiety for me for 1-2 weeks, depending on how much of it I do.
I've been meaning to travel sometime to a clinic for the infusion therapy (that comes with some talk therapy) as where I am now its nearly impossible to source clean ketamine reliably.
Pretty mild doses of psilocybin mushrooms tend to have a longer lasting effect (a month or so), and extremely large doses can work for a half a year or so.
Therapy is really key to sustainable improvement from ketamine, and I worry that it's just being given to patients without the therapy aspects, and what are they doing to do when it stops working for them?
It's important to note that this is an atypically long duration. In clinical studies, the duration of effects is more around 1-2 weeks. It's possible that the overall experience (including surviving an accident and getting a "second lease on life") was the trigger for 4-6 months of improvement, not just the medication you were given once.
That's why, in clinical practice, ketamine is more successfully used in conjunction with typical long-term treatments such as SSRIs and therapy. Some studies used a sequence of 6 treatments spread out over months in an attempt to kickstart the recovery, but it's generally not sustainable as a solo therapy.