I have treatment resistant Major Depressive Disorder and Ketamine treatments have helped me recover. AMA.
Major Depressive Disorder is a serious, debilitating, life-threatening illness that is a leading cause of disability in the world. An estimated 1/3 of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients are classified with treatment resistant depression (TRD) - their symptoms do not respond to standard medications for depression.
Myself and other MDD-TRD patients must turn to the frontier of psychiatric care in search of symptom relief. Ketamine works differently than conventional antidepressants, affecting the glutamate system and it works rapidly; patients who respond show improvement in 24 hours to a week. Ketamine is not approved by the FDA or the EMA as a treatment for depression (in recent news esketamine (Spravato), which is half the Ketamine molecule, has been approved by the FDA).
Ketamine was not my first-run or second or third medication, my symptoms didn't respond to 9 different antidepressants in 5 different categories. Ketamine is not a magic bullet but combined with psychotherapy and cognitive therapies plus a lot of work on myself, my symptoms have been in remission now for over 8 months.
Please ask me whatever questions you like.
@Russellistrying when you say that the antidepressant medication from all the classes didnt help you, do you mean it helped you initially but lost its effectiveness overtime or did it just not help you at all?
Hi @DrJ thanks for responding. I meant that none of the antidepressants I was prescribed affected my depression symptoms ever/at all. From lowest initial dose to highest therapeutic dose, none of them had any effect - except for their side-effects, which was how I knew they were in my system.
We tried augmentation (2 AD drugs) and that was ineffective as well. We gave each antidepressant at least 12 weeks to demonstrate efficacy - except for Venlafaxine, I had such a bad reaction to it I had to taper off sooner.
Thank you @Russellistrying for sharing this. I find your post interesting and quite uplifting. It's good to know there are options and hope for some of us (depending on the country).
I'm wondering, how are you feeling now?
And would you compare the way you feel in remission to what people consider "good mood"/"being healthy"/having no mental illnesses?
I'm just thinking about it since I can't remember the last time I felt ok.
Thank you for sharing your story from which I can tell you're a strong person.
@Russellistrying Thank you for sharing. I have MDD-TRD, dysthymia, and GAD. The depression is terrible. I've even tried TMS - transcranial magnetic stimulation. Did nothing for me. Been trying meds since 2012 and not "cured" yet. I actually acquired my mental illness thanks to a traumatic relationship I was in in 2012. With treatment I am better... but the before was so extreme (crying every day for hours, for months) I guess I was bound to get better with just therapy. But I still struggle with depressive episodes (especially lately) and to do anything seemingly productive in life. I struggle to make myself full meals, drink enough water daily, etc. That could mostly be the dysthymia.
Could you list what your depression symptoms were before the Ketamine and then which of those symptoms, if any, you still had after taking it? Would love to know.
Did you have dysthymia and if so did the Ketamine help with that as well?
How long have you been taking Ketamine and how are you doing now? Hope you're still doing well. <3