Posted by ed_uk2010 on February 19, 2012, at 6:02:45
In reply to could a regular doctor give me a ketamine., posted by poser938 on February 18, 2012, at 20:50:46
>such as, could i go to my regular doc, and if i make the case to him that im in such a dysfunctional state, and since rTMS didnt help me. since ECT could disable me even more. and if i showed him some legitimate studies on ketamine working amazingly well for depression in some people... could he give me ketamine? could he just give me an injection at the office?
Your doc certainly won't have ketamine in his office, not would he inject it personally.
At a large general hospital, they will have some in the hospital pharmacy and in the anesthesia department.
Your doctor would need to liase with an anesthesiologist to find out whether they will give you an injection. At the doses used (eg. 0.5mg/kg), there would not be much work for the anesthetist, but supervision would be needed for several hours in case of a bad reaction, such as hallucinations. Low doses of ketamine have little effect on breathing but there can be some cardiovascular stimulation (heart rate and/or BP temporarily increased) - this is not likely to be a problem unless you have heart disease. A nurse would monitor. If hallucinations or panic occurred, short-acting benzodiazepines are useful.
You would, of course, need someone to drive you home afterwards.
poster:ed_uk2010
thread:1010731
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120212/msgs/1010800.html