I qualified for financial help with one of those places that advertise on social media (Joyous, if you know it), and I've got enough to buy myself the first month of pills.

Curious as to if anyone has had experience with it. On paper it sounds like it would be great for me, but my ma is scared of it cause apparently there are horror stories going around in the news. Way I figure it, if it doesn't help, at least I get drugs.

  • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]
    ·
    7 days ago

    and definitely don't mix them with anti-depressants.

    See, I told the person there i talked to that im on lexapro, lamotrigine, and atomoxetine, and they said that was all fine. What's up with ketamine and SSRIs? I know lexapro kills a lot of hallucinogenics and can be fatal when mixed with mdma, but what's up with ket?

    • JustSo [she/her, any]
      ·
      6 days ago

      Collection of papers, summarised on ketamine + Antidepressant (incl. SSRI) interaction (or lack of, I haven't done the reading. Go figure.)

      https://psychedelics.ucsf.edu/blog/interactions-between-ketamine-and-prescription-antidepressants

      Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

      No concerning interactions exist - clinical trials have shown ketamine’s safety and efficacy in patient populations concurrently using escitalopram and sertraline[3][4]. Combination treatment may confer synergistic effects, as demonstrated by a clinical trial comparing escitalopram + ketamine v. escitalopram + placebo for major depressive disorder (MDD), in which ketamine was found to augment the therapeutic efficacy of the SSRI with improvement in suicidality[5]. Another trial on sertraline also suggests that ketamine may be used as adjuvant therapy[6]. However, it’s important to note that ketamine is metabolized by the liver enzymes P450 CYP2B6 and CYP3A4 primarily, so any inhibitors and inducers of these enzymes could alter the metabolism of ketamine. Paroxetine, sertraline, fluoxetine, and fluvoxamine are all CYP3A4 inhibitors, so concurrent use of ketamine can possibly elevate the bioavailability of ketamine. However, this slight elevation may not be clinically significant[7][8].

    • JustSo [she/her, any]
      ·
      7 days ago

      Fark. Please just be careful whatever you do though.

      I'm with SorosFootSoldier n them as far as not wanting to see you get hurt or go further down a dark path. If we had downvotes I'm sure some of my posts would reflect a broader concern for some of the things I'm posting here.

      Remember I am a drug addict who has made a lot of poor choices. Repeatedly. A track record of bad decisions.

      I do stand by the therapeutic potential of these substances, though, there's really no argument as far as the research goes.

        • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]M
          ·
          6 days ago

          If you get bad vibes from this place you should look in to monthly esketamine nasal sprays. Not that hardly anything the medical industry does is necessarily “above board” but off label daily dissociative use smells fishy.

          • JustSo [she/her, any]
            ·
            6 days ago

            My pharma friend is finding a fair bit of research into treatment of major depressive disorder with this daily dosing in conjunction with antidepressants. I've posted a blog link compiling findings in a comment further up the thread if you're interested.

            I would trust your analysis of these sources more than my own.

    • JustSo [she/her, any]
      ·
      7 days ago

      Aight I've just hit up my friendly neighbourhood biochemistry dropout, I've been looping them in on the subjects coming up in this thread, since this lozenge / sublingual dose ketamine was news to them.

      They had just finished reading a paper where the ketamine was trialed in conjunction with Zoloft/sertraline. It seems like things get more complicated with the more exotic compounds like 3-HO and MXE. Definitely check with a prescribing physician and do further research, but my experience might be tainted from a period of time when the market was not a reliable source for pure ketamine and so we had to stay on the safe side.

      Edit: Sorry, to put that more clearly- proper medical grade ketamine may in fact be safe to use in conjunction with some anti-depressants.

      Edit #2:

      yeah it's 3-MeO-PCP (and OG pcp) that has action at the SERT receptor enough that you might not wanna combine it with SSRI's

      This is (apparently) not the case with ketamine. I may have been too hasty with that warning earlier.

      • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]M
        ·
        6 days ago

        Safe does not mean effective at treating depression. I personally cannot imagine daily ketamine use to help depression, similar to how daily benzodiazepines are no longer used for depression or PTSD, as studies have shown they are just as, if not more likely, to worsen symptoms.

        • JustSo [she/her, any]
          ·
          6 days ago

          Correct they should be used as an adjunct therapy to buy the patient temporary relief and the mental space to move forward while actively working to form new sustainable behavior patterns and learning skills to cope with intrusive thoughts and triggering situations.

          I believe this is also true of most SSRIs but that will probably be a controversial opinion, since those drugs do not work on the correct timescales to be used effectively for that sort of treatment given the ramp-up and taper-off requirements and general roulette wheel of finding one that "works" for the patient.

          Edit: And this is really the crux of why the service Corgi has found is highly suspicious. Without offering therapy, just meds, they are not on some well meaning hippocratic oath keeping mission. It's a loophole exploit.

    • JustSo [she/her, any]
      ·
      7 days ago

      I wish I had a better answer than a web search could provide you. I know that while I was on lexapro my go-to "street pharmacologist" kept me away from ketamine. We may have been operating from an abundance of caution type position though.