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)

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

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11271411/

    This study shows twice weekly oral ketamine to be superior to placebo.

    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2735111

    I believe this shows the same thing for twice monthly esketamine nasal spray

    • plinky [he/him]
      ·
      7 days ago

      Aside from declared conflict of interest. the first one do be showing some improvement only on 180 mg dose i think, 20% remission vs 35%, which is significant mind you, but not one shot wonder edgeworth-shrug