[msnimje]

Isn't Ketamine a disassociative drug? Is it that it really cures depression or is it that you no longer care that you are depressed?

A major complaint with most anti-depressives is that they cause the patient to be emotionally numb.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

I would comment, but what's the use?

[Jaysun]

Interesting. They need to do a much broader study, 17 people won't cut it. But it's interesting and sounds promising.

[cll]

Omega 3 fish oil, modulated breathing technique and excercise will get almost anyone farther than meds.

(I'm no doctor but have seen the above work)

[IronJack]

Bummer.

[vimto]

I wrote an posted some descriptions of my depressive episode. I wrote this this because some FReepers seemed to believe depression doesn't exist or isn't that much of problem. Incidentally I am a qualified psychiatric nurse. I still had no idea of just where depression can take a man.

"Sleep brought a relief from the unremitting tiredness but introduced disturbing dreams. Foul and sickening, the dreams seemed to inhabit me. Sometimes I would awake screaming. They were so intense and crisp and colourful in their clarity. The images inside them were bleak and debasing and degrading. The horrors that life can and does reserve for the unfortunate few were aggregated together for me to gaze upon in seemingly unrelated but disturbing sequences. It was as if I was looking into the recesses of my own black heart and inspecting it’s cadaver and viewing the possible causes of it’s death. As within Mervyn Peake’s Gorhmengast Castle I discovered metaphorical rooms and corridors within me that had been sealed up for years and subsequently forgotten. Entering each one I was witness to degrading occult scenes of pornographic macabre savagery. This nighttime litany of torture and death was preferable to being awake and knowingly alive."

[SShultz460]

Special K is fun, but you have to pay attention to dosage...

[betty boop]

The good news is that most depressives can be treated with drugs, talk therapy, electroconvulsive treatment, or a combination thereof.

ECT sure didn't do Alan Turing any good.... This great thinker and founder of modern computing died a suicide.... He had hoped ECT would help him deal with his depression.

It seems pretty clear to me that depression is a spiritual disorder. It ought to be treated as such.

When I was in school I worked summers as a nursing assistant in a state psychiatric hospital. Part of my responsibility was to take people to "shock." I got the distinct impression that absolutely no one involved in the procedure had the least clue about what they were doing to the patient. After the fact, I never saw any "improvement." But then, I'm not an "expert."

[wizr]

Am I flesh?
or a tortured soul in a dream?
a nightmare! a hideous nightmare!
with no beginning, no end

Always the same
me, careening through a sea of darkness
groping, for a speck of precious light
hoping, for a dawn that never comes
fleeing, the unseen creature that follows

Unseen, but sensed
unheard, but felt,
drawing closer,

But, is it
behind me?
or, inside me,
looking to escape this tired flesh.

Me

[ozzymandus]

Nobody knows what depression feels like unless you have actually experienced it. I have, and believe me it's not just "a bad mood".

[Kenton]

Depression sucks. It's caused by a simple chemical imbalance and is often triggered by prolonged stress. Most people, in denial or not, experience it some time in their lives. If you've ever had a serious, out-of-control case of the "blues" that lasted more than 3 weeks, you've probably had clinical depression.

Back in the day, it was treated as a character flaw, a sign of personal weakness. Of course, back in the day, people were often treated with leeches for various minor complaints.

There are a number of medical treatments available, and they all work a little differently. Zoloft, for example, just kind of made me emotionally numb. Prozac worked fine for me, with not a single side effect.

And yes, these type of meds take several weeks before they start to work, because it takes that long to repair the nerve synapses that transmit information through your central nervous system so they can produce seratonin, so your brain can return to the same happy sense of balance you felt when you were a kid, before life descended on you with all it's problems. .

But believe me, if you have depression and somebody tells you "this can be better in 3 weeks", you'll go for it. Or maybe you won't, maybe you'll just hang with it and try to "tough it out", and stay depressed for years.

A faith in God makes a big difference, too. Just taking the time to reflect on how many ways your life is better than it could be, and praising God for your blessings can have an amazing difference on how you look at life.

[Gamecock]

WWTD?

[308MBR]

It's effects sound like the same achieved with moderate doses of cocaine, alcohol, heroin, quaaludes and Xanax.

No news here.

[steamroller]

ketamine was used in Vietnam-it's hardly new-it also can cause serious respiratory depression-and yes,it's a disassociative anesthetic,sort of like versed,which you've probably had if you underwent a colonoscopy-spaces you right out-i wouldn't celebrate this report too early

[michgirl]

Thanks for the posting. Mental issues continue to be stigmatized. Depression is difficult to understand. I work at a university where there is a lot of research going on and much to learn about this disorder. I have heard about using ketermine and am open to the possibility it may be helpful to some individuals who suffer depression.

[Hammerhead]

Try getting (or keeping) a top secret security clearance by answering 'yes' if you have EVER recieved treatment (medical/therapy) for depression.

[WaterDragon]

The information in the link to ketamine sounds ominous! I wouldn't want it as an anesthetic!

[Paved Paradise]

OMG. The cure for depression is to anesthesia. What next? Induce a coma?