Psychiatry’s Latest Insane Magic-Bullet Treatment for Depression: Why Ketamine?
www.counterpunch.org
Clinics offering ketamine infusions and injections for “treatment-resistant depression” are today claiming 24-48 hours remission, and ketamine is also being marketed for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorder. “Between 500 and 750 ketamine clinics have cropped up across the United States,” NPR reported early in 2024 (“The Ketamine Economy: New Mental Health Clinics are a ‘Wild West’ with Few Rules”). This may be an underestimation, as Psychiatric News reported later in 2024, “More than 1,500 intravenous (IV) infusion clinics have proliferated nationwide.” Ketamine industry revenues of $3.1 billion were reported in 2022, and projected to be $6.9 billion by 2030.

Some discussion of pharma-psychiatry stuff, i haven't gone through to verify claims (whether it's some crank journals), but the gist is that antidepressants show effectiveness around placebo for depression treatment, and thus not getting success from them and getting approved for ketamine shouldn't inspire confidence, as it shows the same effectiveness.

(obviously not a call to abandon medication if it helps you, who it helps - it helps)

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    7 days ago

    I've heard many a psychologist and therapist lament that the actual treatment their patient needs is money for rent.

    • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      7 days ago

      Well, they're closer (imo) to the actual solution

      If they remove the capitalism goggles and dare to imagine a world where there were no rent to worry about...

      Pretty sure this surface level "obvious" truth is why libs lose their fucking minds about "the left" generally.

      They maintain their day to day grasp on reality by believing in certain "truths" like "housing must be a commodity." Or "healthcare cannot be free. Even if it's taxpayer funded, it is still never "free."" (You see that constantly)

      Everything to them is only measurable in currency. It's all an exchange. The idea of people all cooperating and striving for the best possible world for everyone instead of competing for the small islands away from Hell is like... dividing by zero for them or something. It's literally not possible to compute. At best they can sort of play with the idea, draw some graphs to infinity or some shit to show what it might be like.

      When you try to explain plainly that everything can be had and the only thing stopping a better world is the very systems they reflexively defend they tell you are deluded and lost in dreams of utopia. The sad truth is the people they believe dream of utopia are the realists. They are the delusional ones if they believe the system currently destroying our world and the lives of everything on it is going to also solve the problems it creates.

      The mysticism that liberals create to hide truths has become an inflexible ideology. Basically a religion at this point. The solution to fixing things is simply to "hope" and wait until capitalism solves the problem. Much like actual religion can do, it removes personal responsibility from those who could otherwise affect change. It gives a sense of false hope and also an immediate fall back when the inevitable bad outcome occurs. "Ah, but there was nothing we could've done. The free market would've prevented this if it were possible..."

    • FumpyAer [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      7 days ago

      Hexbear mutual aid comm is the greatest anti-depressant the imperial core has ever known! /hj