Comment by mosburger | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mosburger | Hacker News Reader

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Last year I underwent treatments for my treatment-resistant major depression using Ketamine. It was a clinical setting, where you'd get wired up to blood pressure, pulse-ox, and other monitors while you were monitored by an RN via video camera. This was IV Ketamine, so not the inhalants that are available now. According to the clinic, the inhalants (which they also offered) are also generally less effective than IV, and the IV was safer in my case because I have other medical conditions where being able to "shut it off" was a good thing - you can turn an IV off, but once you inhale, you're on your own.

So... this clinic was not entirely unlike what you're proposing w/ DMT.

FWIW, the results were incredible. I was effectively "cured." But unfortunately my insurance changed, and it became no longer covered, and I couldn't afford the $2000 every six weeks for the treatment anymore. And it's not super convenient to take two hours off from work to go to the trip-sitter's to get the treatments.

I hope that they figure out what it is in psychadelics that make them effective at treating stuff like depression and PTSD and make it more accessible because it seems like there's so much potential there.

(Also: fuck Elon Musk for making Ketamine a punchline)

Fun fact: the cost of the ketamine in that $2000 treatment is about $1. Even factoring in trained staff to monitor, you’re up to a few hundred bucks for the hour. It’s mostly just the failings of the US medical establishment, and, of course, arbitrarily constrained supply that results in gouging.

Just go buy $100 in street ketamine (still marked up 100x, fwiw, also because laws) from someone reputable, test it for fentanyl, and blow lines of it. Same deal, $1900 less cost. Breaking some dumb rules is far preferable to living with untreated depression.

You're much safer and cheaper buying Ketamine from the darknet via a reputable vendor.

You get to decide whether you want racemic or S-Ketamine, and your money is held in escrow until you've got the product and release the funds to the vendor.

Is that not precisely what I recommended?

> being able to "shut it off" was a good thing - you can turn an IV off, but once you inhale, you're on your own

How does it work? Is the half-life of it shorter when administered IV?

Only a little. Not enough to serve as an escape hatch. It depends on the infusion rate, of course, but you’re talking a difference of maybe 15-20 minutes.

I had a Ketamine infusion done at a clinic in Miami.

It was $600 (discounted) for the first infusion.

You go through a pre-evaluation with the doctor, where they determine a dosage for you based on prior experience and bodyweight.

My clinic also offered to co-administer IV benzos to prevent panic attacks or negative experiences, which was a HUGE plus for me.

During the experience you're given a button, which you can press to call them and have the drip turned off or turned down.

If it wasn't so expensive or covered by my insurance, I would've certainly repeated it.

Highly recommend.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! I’ve read that you can get your hands on a solution for Ketamine injections (or, if you have pure Ketamine, just prepare one yourself). Most go for intra-muscular injections instead (~70% bioavailability compared to IV, still great compared to ~10% when snorted). The reason they give is, when administered IV it wears off way too quickly – I guess drip solves this one!

This is, of course, way more risky and pretty much illegal I guess, but it should probably be cheaper?

It'll be significantly cheaper, and assuming you purchase the Ketamine from a reputable source/vendor and use a test kit on it, the risk is comparatively "minimal".

Not necessarily "condoning" the behavior, so much as sharing harm-minimization info here:

For safe/sterile injection, you need three things, all cheaply + easily available on the internet.

1) Bacteriostatic water - https://www.amazon.com/bacteriostatic-water/s?k=bacteriostat...

2) Sealed, sterile vials for preparation of the solution - https://www.amazon.com/Sterile-Vial/s?k=Sterile+Vial

3) Insulin syringes. 29g 0.5" work well. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=29g+1cc+1%2F2+inch+insulin+syring...

See my comment in this thread about IM administration of 4-AcO-DMT for more info:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44535690

Ketamine is dumb. Nothing like a psychedelic drug such as LSD.

I like the potential healing value of Ketamine.

But that doesn't make replacing every instance of ketamine with "horse tranquilizer" any less funny.

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