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Comment by blkknightarms | Hacker News Reader

Which psychedelics (shrooms, acid, peyote, salvia, ketamine, ayahuasca) would be best for endogenous, treatment-resistant depression? If there are any with a proven effect, do they have to be taken periodically?

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Ayahuasca changed my life completely, for the better.

I went from years of depression to zero depression in the first profound session. And I'm not a religious guy.

I highly recommend.

I'd love to read your story. Did you write about it? The years of depression, traveling to the ayahuasca place, the sessions, the changes you made in your life afterwards.

I intend to write about it soon in the coming weeks and I will post my life changing experience here, for sure!

Ketamine is not generally considered a psychedelic. It's a disassociative.

I don't think I've ever seen a study comparing this in the way you describe, but from piecing together other papers I recall seeing I would say probably psiloc(yb)in, possibly DMT ("ayahuasca"), with LSD and mescaline (peyote/san pedro) being qualitatively similar. All of these are primarily serotonergic.

I'd be surprised if Salvia does jack shit in that domain, regardless of how trippy the experience can be. It acts very differently.

>> Ketamine is not generally considered a psychedelic. It's a disassociative.

Yeah, I don't think people who say that have done a high enough dosage. :P

It can absolutely induce psychedelic experiences - in medical literature it's not generally (though this is not entirely consistent) classified as a psychedelic.

kinda splitting hairs, but these words do have specific meanings. psychedelics and dissociatives of hallucinogens, a broader category of drugs. you definitely see weird stuff if you take enough ketamine, but the hallucinations have a very different character.

subjectively, I find psychedelics to have more of an "organic" feel and dissociatives to have a more "synthetic" feel, although I imagine others might describe it differently.

(Speaking for tryptamines as I’m not to sure about the others). It might require periodic doses until you actually resolve your trauma, which more often than not takes a lot of uncomfortable digging. It’s typical to spend at least a couple of weeks at an ayahuasca retreat, drinking several times throughout the stay. In my experience, unless you’re somewhat lucky, won’t have that life changing experience on your first session.

Ketamine is now a FDA-approved treatment for depression / suicidal ideation.

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