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Comment by Ophelias_Rue | Hacker News Reader

I know it's anecdotal, but I've been receiving ketamine at a local clinic for a few years for chronic depression and a spinal injury. It has proven too be the most effective treatment I've had for treating depression. As another poster said, it is short lived (around two months) But the release from depression, and back pain is life changing for me.

To go with the article, it is incredibly fast acting. Like same day results, I don't know if it's placebo or the ketamine but I'm happy with it as it gave me life back.

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You get this done at a clinic- what's the effects like? I've heard terms like "K-hole" for heavy off-prescription users getting zonked by the stuff. I'm assuming you're taking a light dose? Can you drive yourself home?

I generally leave my clinic about half an hour after my infusion ends, but I'm taking the subway. If I were going to drive I'd probably hang out for 60-90 minutes. The dissociative and psychotomimetic effects wear off pretty quickly. But this depends on dose... my doc used to use higher doses before there was as much research around what works, and back then it would sometimes take a few hours before I felt back to normal in terms of cognitive and motor skills.

I'm in the opposite boat, the dose I receive is fairly high and I'm unable to even stand for around 20 minutes after it ends. There's no way I can drive the day of. As for the events, the feeling of dissociation takes around a day to fade for me. I also have a high deal of cognitive impairment from it, or detachment in my thoughts?

Is enjoyable?

Yes it's at a clinic, and it's not a light dose. It does cause "K-Holes", it'll completely incapacitate you for the day of, and you'll be dizzy and sluggish the day after. So no you can't drive yourself home.

You should not "K-hole" with a clinical dose.

It's a fairly heavy dose where you will k-hole. I get 1ml/kg, I definitely dissociate with it. They hook you up to a crash cart to make sure your blood pressure does not go too high, you put on some eyemasks and headphones and drift into it.

No clinics will recommend driving afterwards. The one I go to won't even allow me to Uber home, I need to arrange a medical transport or have a friend/family member there.

Any side-effects? Bladder/urinary issues? What happens to you as it wears off?

During you can suffer from some intense anxiety and strong nausea, so they'll give stuff for that. After the only thing that I notice is that my emotions are put to 11 and I'll just be extremely uncoordinated and exhausted.

I have found it to cause some memory issues for the following couple weeks, but it mostly recovers. It's certainly better than the memory issues when I'm in the throes of depression itself. It also spikes my blood pressure up quite high during treatment.

You feel sorta light headed afterwards. For the weeks after I just notice myself doing more stuff. Waking up early, having lots of energy, just feeling pretty good.

How specific is the dose? Do they calibrate it by weight or body fat or anything?

Body weight. I'm unsure at the moment/can't remember what their metrics are though.

The dose is based off of body weight. Some do it off of "ideal" body weight while others do actual body weight.

Does your insurance cover it?

Insurance does not cover it unfortunately

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