Posted on 10/18/2022 5:32:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
-Depression is a mood disorder that affects many people and it can impact people’s beliefs and how they respond to information. -Ketamine is a drug that is typically used as an anesthetic that is also used recreationally, however, its use as a treatment for depression is not fully understood. -A new study found that the administration of ketamine could help people develop more optimistic beliefs after receiving positive information. -Depression impacts millions of people in the United States alone, but the disorder can be challenging to treat. Some people do not respond well to the typical medications or therapies doctors use to treat depression. So, experts are constantly researching new ways to help improve treatment options for people with depression.
A new studyTrusted Source published in JAMA PsychiatryTrusted Source sought to examine how the use of ketamine could help people with treatment-resistant depression.
They found the use of ketamine helped some participants update negative beliefs. Updating these beliefs was further associated with a decline in depressive symptoms.
Impact of depression
DepressionTrusted Source is a psychiatric mood disorder. It can cause various symptoms, including persistent feelings of emptiness, hopelessness, or worthlessness. About 16 millionTrusted Source adults are affected by depression each year.
Dr. Guochuan Emil Tsai, neuropsychiatry expert and CEO of the company SyneuRx, who was not involved in the study, explained to Medical News Today:
“Negative beliefs such as ‘I’m worthless,’ ‘I’m unlovable,’ or ‘I’m a failure’ are common symptoms of depression. When a patient begins to spiral into negative thinking, it can exacerbate depression, increasing a person’s negative beliefs. It becomes a vicious cycle that requires medication, psychotherapy, and strong support to break.”
The authors of this study note that people with depression can have negative views about themselves, the world around them, and the future.
People with depression can have negative expectations about the future, even when presented with evidence that doesn’t confirm these negative beliefs. In contrast, people without depression are more likely to update their beliefs when they receive positive information, which is called optimism bias.
Treatment for depression can involve a combination of medication and therapy. However, depression may persist for some people, or the person may not respond positively to certain medicines.
Research is ongoing about how to treat depression effectively. One area of interest is how ketamine, generally used as an anesthetic, could be used in treating depression.
Improve your quality of life with the support of BetterHelp's licensed therapists. Get therapy when you need it over phone, video, or chat.
Ketamine’s antidepressant effects: updating beliefs Researchers in this study sought to look at how ketamine could influence negative beliefs among people with depression. It was an observational case-control study.
It included 56 participants—30 controls and 26 people with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Those with treatment-resistant depression met specific criteria, including not responding to at least two previous antidepressant treatments.
The participants with treatment-resistant depression received three total ketamine infusions over one week, the second 48 hours after the first, and then the third five days later. Researchers observed participants 24 hours before their first infusion, four hours after, and four hours after the third infusion.
All participants worked through belief updating tasks. Researchers presented the participants with a variety of adverse life events and asked them to estimate their likelihood of experiencing these events in their lifetime. Then, participants received factual information about how likely these events are to occur in the general population.
The researchers found that participants with treatment-resistant depression had a greater ability to positively update certain beliefs after the ketamine treatment. This shift in belief updating was further associated with decreased depressive symptoms.
“We observed each patient before and after ketamine and found an early cognitive effect on beliefs about the future. Notably, patients started to show an optimism bias in belief updating 4 hours after [the] first, single infusion. At one week of treatment, the optimist bias in belief updating correlated to the clinical antidepressant effect.” — Dr. Liane Schmidt, study author
Limitations and areas for continued research The study offered insight into how ketamine could be used to expand treatment options for people with depression. However, the study also had several limitations.
First, it was not a blind or randomized study, which can impact bias in study results. It also included a small sample size and only took place over a week, indicating the need for studies with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up times.
The research cannot confirm that the effects of ketamine are unique to people with treatment-resistant depression.
Participants also received their normal antidepressant treatment during the study. The researchers acknowledge that other antidepressants could also influence belief updating or work by influencing other functions. The authors encourage further research into the mechanisms underlying antidepressant medications and ketamine.
Overall, the results could open up new treatment strategies for some individuals with depression.
However, Dr. Tsai offered the following words of caution:
“Ketamine infusion is available but not commonly used. It’s usually reserved only for treatment-resistant depression and can only be done in facilities that offer IV infusion and can monitor patients. It would be similar to a dialysis center. Ketamine is also a Schedule III controlled substance with inherent risks.”
“It’s essential also to understand that ketamine infusion won’t replace mainstream cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression.” — Dr. Guochuan Emil Tsai
Study author Dr. Liane Schmidt was optimistic about the study’s findings and the possibility of new treatments in this area.
“These findings suggest that drug-enhanced (ketamine-enhanced) psychotherapy could be a good idea for the treatment of depression,” she told MNT.
“It means that ketamine kind of ‘opens the door’ for positive information to disconfirm the strong negative beliefs about the future that are part of the so-called cognitive triad of depression and maintain the disease. If this door opens, the patients might become more receptive to [suggestions] aimed at disconfirming their ruminations and, through it, fight the disease.” — Dr. Liane Schmidt
I need a 10lb bucket!!!
I think there is better research on Ketamine than MDMA. And besides MDMA’s efficacy, there are questions of it’s safety.
Right out of the gate, I have a problem with this article.
How do we know it's a mood disorder rather than, say, something's made someone miserable? Is there a set of criteria to distinguish "mood disorder" from other things that leave a person feeling sad? There should be. Because there's nothing "disordered" about feeling sad if your dog died or you lost a great job or your house burned down; indeed would you not have some sort of disorder if such things did not depress you?
And what if your wife of fifty years died, and you're still sad a year later...or five years...ten? At what point do you have a disorder?
How do we determine when it's a disorder and when it's the only rational response to whatever befalls a person?
I ask because practitioners of medical science employ the term, not philosophers; so it must be a real phenomenon with a set of objective, measurable characteristics...
Adverse life events, hmm.
Were they asked how many "adverse life events" they'd already experienced, and with what effects? Were points added or subtracted according to how far they differed from the "general population?"
Your schlemiel might be cheered up by statistics but your schlimazel will go with pattern recognition every time, and maybe there's a reason for that.
I just looked it up. Amazing thing is addiction to Special K is rare. I guess that really does make it special.
https://www.drugrehab.com/addiction/drugs/ketamine/
Oh, well then! Don't bogart that ketamine, pass it over! It'll ease depression in four -- did you say four hours?? There are competing substances that can ease one's "mood disorder" in four minutes.
Believe it or not, there are ketamine clinics out there that you can get a “doctor” to prescribe you permission to get K-Holed on ketamine.
“Ketamine is an animal tranquilizer. You don’t trip.”
I guess it depends on what you call a “trip.” When we showed up patient was being was screaming and had ripped out their IV and was being chased around the room by the ketamine clinic staff.
That sounds like a withdrawal from something else, and psychosis.
Patient was on 3rd or so round that day. Had been there for several hours. K-Holed.
I had a friend who did a study at a major university, and he got an injection, and it helped his depression for three months, but it’s been too expensive after that. I read an article about a clinic in Palo Alto, you can get an infusion, but it’s expensive. I just heard about an acquaintance who had been doing well, but then spiraled into depression, and couldn’t leave her room for six months. She went to an anesthesiologist, not sure if she got an injection or infusion, but she snapped out of the depression right away. They have a spray, but I’m not sure how good the research is on that.
I have seen a K-hole before.
I referenced K-hole somewhere on this thread.
That's kind of like calling Ivermectin horse paste. It's used in human medicine, especially in emergency rooms.
Fair enough. The people I knew got from a Vet tech that stole it...
It’s an anesthesia based chemical, not LSD, shrooms or DMT type of hallucinogen.
Ket infusions at a specialty clinic near me are $450 each. Staffed by two ARNPs plus medical assistant. Only accepts patients referred by a mental health clinician.
” leave a person feeling sad? “
Affect is only one of many aspects of clinical depression and many cases have nothing to do with life events at all.
Wow, that is cheap, compared to what I’ve heard.
But when a series of ten is needed it’s not that cheap.
That's really amazing when you think about it. An overall, pervasive emotional atmosphere unaffected by life events, and, I take it, not affecting them either. Or is there a sort of membrane through which things flow one way only? Curiouser and curiouser, cried Alice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.