Posted by Michael Bell on October 23, 2014, at 8:46:45
In reply to Re: Ketamine Infusions - my review » Michael Bell, posted by SLS on October 22, 2014, at 23:52:13
I suspect you will like my answer. I never suffered from melancholy or "typical" depression. Mine manifests as lack of the ability to derive pleasure from pretty much everything, although mainly social reward. I also suffer from constant negative thought loops and rumination. Throw anxiety and some anger into the mix, and there you go. Also, I suffered from severe social anxiety for most of my life which thankfully has abated significantly through the years. For the past several years, I would say I had Health Anxiety at a 9/10 (without clomipramine), social anxiety at a 3/10 and atypical depression at a 6/10.
So what has Ketamine done so far? Given me a positive mental, emotional energy that has reduced the anhedonia (which NO medicine has ever touched), minimized the negative rumination and made me overall less anxious. I will say that I have been on clomipramine for almost a year, which had already brought my Health Anxiety down to about a 3/10, but did nothing for social anxiety, atypical depression or anhedonia. So far, the Ketamine is doing better than I expected.
> Quick questions:
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> To what degree were cognitive and memory impairments features of your depressive state?
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> What were the most prominent symptoms?
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> An article I read reported that anhedonia resolved more quickly than most other depressive symptoms with ketamine. It is interesting that you listed that first among the symptoms of depression to improve..
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> - Scott
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> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141020105037.htm
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> A drug being studied as a fast-acting mood-lifter restored pleasure-seeking behavior independent of -- and ahead of -- its other antidepressant effects, in a National Institutes of Health trial. Within 40 minutes after a single infusion of ketamine, treatment-resistant depressed bipolar disorder patients experienced a reversal of a key symptom -- loss of interest in pleasurable activities -- which lasted up to 14 days. Brain scans traced the agent's action to boosted activity in areas at the front and deep in the right hemisphere of the brain.
poster:Michael Bell
thread:1072713
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20141017/msgs/1072738.html