That being said, there are a number of studies that suggest this is an effective treatment, so I hope this can become more available to those who need it. However, for treatment resistant depression (especially with a catatonia component), intranasal ketamine is very hard to beat. Only topped by ECT in my experience.
This is already a problem for most psychiatric drug trials; studies have found that most people can tell if they’re on an SSRI or in a control group, since the side effects are pretty noticeable.
There is evidence that this skews study results, to the point that some scientists believe that SSRIs may only be “effective” because the obvious side effects make them a good active placebo.
I can see such unreasonable objections being used to prevent it's approval though.
Seems spurious as:
- 1) how do you reliably measure "people could tell"?;
- 2) if people sensed it, likely they can sense when they are on active in a whole range of effective medicines, so seems a biased / moved-goalpost application of the "rules";
- 3) what does it matter if the strength of the drug effect is greater than the strength of the placebo? Ie, surely they can model and subtract and control, so what does it matter if the actual effect is more than placebo?
Ugh...
With the after-glow lasting weeks however, it seems to facilitate/allow a period of self-reflection (using whatever else possibly as an aide) that is notably absent of self-pity.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5...
Yeah that dose you would notice a fair bit - it’s equivalent to about 2.5g dried cubes.