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Ketamine Is Psychiatrists' Secret Weapon Against Depression. Here’s How it Works.
MSN ^ | 7/9 | Abby Haglage

Posted on 07/10/2021 10:51:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Ketamine, a drug once popular in the club scene, is now psychiatrists' secret weapon against depression. Perhaps you've heard of it, either from celebrities' personal stories — such as former NBA player Lamar Odom — or through the many research studies currently underway to assess its effectiveness.

What you may not know is how the drug works to relieve depression, and why it seems to help patients for whom all other treatments have failed. In that, you wouldn't be alone. Dr. Steven Levine, a board-certified psychiatrist who developed the protocol for the clinical use of ketamine in 2011, says scientists are still nailing it down. The Food & Drug Administration, which approved a nasal spray version of ketamine known as esketamine in 2019, is too. As the science world continues to explore how a drug that was once used as an anesthetic on the battlefield has revolutionized the mental health world, here's what you need to know.

Ketamine offers "a more optimistic model of depression"

Levine says the basic way to explain it is that the drug more or less wakes up the brain and allows it to form new connections. "We think that it affects the glutamate system. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter, [which] are chemical messengers that carry information signals in the brain," he says. "It enables the brain to heal and change and learn and become more resilient."

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: depressio; depression; drugs; ketamine
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To: nickcarraway

Great drug, used in conjunction with Rompun for a general anesthetic prior to doing animal (small ruminants) surgeries, disbudding, etc.


21 posted on 07/11/2021 2:44:16 AM PDT by Fury
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To: nickcarraway

Oh no no no.

I was given that drug because of a broken off disc so I could get an MRI and be still.

Apparently, I had what is professionally known as a “Bad Trip”……..

Had to shut that crap off.

Cured the pain though……….took a while for people to stop melting however.


22 posted on 07/11/2021 3:03:30 AM PDT by David Chase (DavidHereToHelp)
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To: nickcarraway

It would be interesting to see what effect it has on dementia and Alzheimer’s patients.


23 posted on 07/11/2021 3:05:44 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: nickcarraway

It’s become a go to drug in ICU’s.


24 posted on 07/11/2021 3:11:45 AM PDT by whershey
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To: nickcarraway

Didn’t Michael Jackson kill himself with ketamine? It surely cured his depression if he had any.


25 posted on 07/11/2021 3:12:26 AM PDT by Czech_Occidentalist
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To: Czech_Occidentalist

acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, per Wikipedia.


26 posted on 07/11/2021 3:18:53 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: Bobalu

It may work for some but I had a bad reaction from it in the ER for heart problem and had them enter in my records NEVER to give it to me again. If they do I will sue them for everything.


27 posted on 07/11/2021 4:53:55 AM PDT by jimfr
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To: devere

SAMe, plus a B-12/folic acid patch, work wonders for me.


28 posted on 07/11/2021 4:54:01 AM PDT by ryderann
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To: Czech_Occidentalist

Didn’t Michael Jackson kill himself with ketamine? It surely cured his depression if he had any.

——-

No, with propofol.


29 posted on 07/11/2021 5:52:21 AM PDT by Levy78
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To: nickcarraway

Depression is NOT a hormone imbalance. It can’t be fixed by a chemical that fools the body into thinking that it’s happy.

Find out WHY the person is depressed! Perhaps it’s because he was rendered unemployed within the space of 2 days, and that he was scared silly by the talk of 2 million dead, and that he suddenly didn’t see his family and friends for 9 months, and he knew the left was using this to steal the country.

Fix the source of the problem, and then your silly-fool neurotransmitter will work in concert with reality and put a smile on his face.


30 posted on 07/11/2021 6:15:15 AM PDT by I want the USA back (To find out who really rules you, find out who you're not allowed to criticize. Voltaire. )
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To: nickcarraway

later


31 posted on 07/11/2021 6:20:34 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Trump: "They're After You. I'm Just In The Way")
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To: tired&retired
Modern medicine is more concerned with hiding or suppression of symptoms than resolving them.

Bingo. Resolution doesn't pay.

32 posted on 07/11/2021 6:26:17 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
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To: Free in Texas

You forgot p!$$ing on their graves, but you are forgiven.


33 posted on 07/11/2021 7:10:48 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (Don't wish your enemy ill; plan it.)
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To: Free in Texas

Gaw dam druggies.


34 posted on 07/11/2021 7:11:54 AM PDT by Lazamataz (I feel like it is 1937 Germany, and my last name is Feinberg.)
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To: whershey

Gaw dam druggie ER’s.


35 posted on 07/11/2021 7:12:52 AM PDT by Lazamataz (I feel like it is 1937 Germany, and my last name is Feinberg.)
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To: David Chase
Cured the pain though……….took a while for people to stop melting however.

You Gaw dam druggie.

36 posted on 07/11/2021 7:13:53 AM PDT by Lazamataz (I feel like it is 1937 Germany, and my last name is Feinberg.)
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To: Lazamataz

I had a lot of narcotics that whole month.

If someone gave me a drug test, my urine would have melted the cup.


37 posted on 07/11/2021 7:31:08 AM PDT by David Chase (DavidHereToHelp)
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To: I want the USA back

Sometimes there is not a reason. When it hits you, you know it and the circumstances are many times irrelevant.


38 posted on 07/11/2021 7:40:53 AM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston? )
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To: AppyPappy

“Sometimes there is not a reason. When it hits you, you know it and the circumstances are many times irrelevant.”

So true, and the problem with current anti depressants is that they take 4-8 weeks to start working. Many people give up before they start to work because the side effects are so unpleasant. They can make you feel worse before they make you feel better.


39 posted on 07/11/2021 8:45:11 AM PDT by willk
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To: Lazamataz

Another sales pitch for drugs by the lefty media.


40 posted on 07/11/2021 10:09:03 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
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