Ketamine possible cure for anhedonia

From what ive seen of Ketamine it would be madness to play with it as any part of a cure its a power drug that I can’t imagine anyone benefiting from long term my opinion is it would only lead to more problems long term.
It’s illegal for a reason.

It’s legal in Canada for treatment resistant depression but it hasn’t been followed up long term yet as far as im aware, it’s also legal as a sedative, I’m not familiar with its effects so just asking around i guess.

This conclusion is what got me interested in looking into it.

“Several notable findings emerged from this study investigating the effects of the rapid-acting antidepressant ketamine on anhedonia in currently depressed treatment-resistant BD patients. Foremost among these findings is that ketamine, compared with placebo, rapidly reduced the levels of anhedonia in these patients; this reduction occurred within 40 min of a single ketamine infusion and lasted up to 14 days. Furthermore, we found that anti-anhedonic effects of ketamine remained significant even when controlling for level of depressive symptoms, suggesting that ketamine has a unique role in ameliorating anhedonia levels independent of other depressive symptoms.”

Marijuana is also illegal and look at the benefits of that yet finasteride, SSRI’S and accutane are legal and look where they got us :slightly_frowning_face: I have no trust in regularities, if something could potentially help, I’m up for anything, just my personal opinion.

I know exactly where your coming from mate I’m on the cautious side of things these days as I’ve tried a few things but for me it usually ended up making things worse or being of no benefit at all.
I use to smoke alot of cannabis for pain management it was brilliant and really helped me to sleep but ended up being a disaster for me long term the THC plays with your mind making you more depressed than ever and paranoid.
It’s all just my opinion each to their own

1 Like

Yeah that’s completely understandable, I get you.
At the end of the day i guess the best thing would be no drugs at all ever again, hopefully once we do find the underlying cause of this disease we can target it and reset our bodies back to the way they where or near it for good. Just so frustrating in the mean time :pensive:

A few weeks ago I read up on finasteride reviews on a hairloss forum alot if them were negative as you can imagine most of them saying about the sexual physical and mental issues whilst taking finasteride and post finastetide one of the guys mentioned a time machine sometimes I think he’s about right it would be great to jump in and turn back the clock.

1 Like

I tried IV ketamine. Cool experience, but it didn’t do anything for my anhedonia (or depression for that matter).

2 Likes

I’ve tried ketamine IV several times and it helped like nothing else.
It helped against anxiety, depression, anhedonia, made my fatigue a lot better.
I’d go as far as to say that it saved my life because there were times when I was so depressed and exhausted that I thought if it continues like this for a few more months, I’ll have to end it.
So yes, ketamine helps. Sorry for bumping up an old thread but I felt the need to express how much it helped me.

1 Like

Didn’t do too much for libido etc. But in terms of depression, anhedonia, anxiety etc, it is the only thing I’ve found so far that really helps.

1 Like

What dosis? How long does it last?

I tried ketamine for the first time in January 2017 when I was severely depressed, anxious, anhedonic and basically couldn’t handle my life anymore.
I got the treatment that is pretty common in treating depression with ketamine:
6 infusions over two weeks. I don’t recall the exact dosage, but it started around 25mg I think and the dosage was slowly increased with every infusion.

It worked incredibly well. During the first week I noticed some functioning coming back. I suddenly had more impulses to interact with other people, to talk or even joke around a little. After the second week I felt the anxiety and depression lift. I felt cured in terms of depression and anxiety. After that I continued to get a “booster” infusion every 3 months. That’s a pretty long interval for booster infusions. I read that it is common to get a booster every 4-8 weeks.

In 2019 I stopped getting the booster infusions because I was feeling so good that I thought I might not need them anymore. This year, when I was heavily depressed and anhedonic again, I tried a single infusion (55mg ketamine) which didn’t help. That was distressing and a shock for me, because I thought the only thing that really helped with depression didn’t work on me anymore.
But now, I guess I was too deeply in the depression again for one infusion to help. I received 5 infusions over two weeks this July/August and it worked as well as it did in 2017. Depression, anxiety, anhedonia lifted. I feel normal. I feel pretty good.

But I still have to repeat that ketamine infusions didn’t do a lot for my ED and libido. I guess I’ll have to find a different cure for that.

Concerning the dosage: There are two different types of ketamine.
There is ketamine and S-ketamine. The latter is twice as potent as the “normal” ketamine. I used to receive 55mg ketamine (NOT S-ketamine) as a booster.

If depression, anxiety and anhedonia are your main PFS-issues, I’d recommend trying ketamine infusions. It’s expensive. But for me it worked when nothing else did.
You can also check the academic literature. For a few years, there has been a big hype because lots of researchers were baffled by how well ketamine works even in so called “treatment resistant” patients.

Hope my anecdotal evidence is of any help for anyone.

And while I’m here: Did anyone find a cure for low to non-existent libido by now, lol?

1 Like

I forgot to answer how long it lasts:
That seems to vary a lot from patient to patient.
For some it lasts only two weeks. For some it lasts three months (like for me).

But to be honest: If I’ll continue to receive ketamine infusions for the rest of my life and will be freed from depression - I’ll go for it. My main concern is to reboot my libido right now. I think I’ll try Buspirone for that. Read some interesting things about it here.

2 Likes

Can you do the survey please?

Do you mean this one?

Nope, check this topic for more information: Post-Drug Syndrome Survey FAQ. Survey NOW LIVE - Please Participate

If you filled out this survey, that would be really helpful and one step closer to fixing this problem.

Curious if you’re still taking Ketamine boosters. I took Ketamine in the past, and found it helped my mood a lot. I simply couldn’t afford the $350 per dose after 7 treatments and stopped. I’ve been on Wellbutrin the last year or so, and will consider Ketamine again, once I can get off the Wellbutrin.

1 Like

Taking oxycodone/percocet has helped me for few days. It’s an opiate, similar to ketamine (just weaker).

can you get ketamine prescribed from a pharmacy?

Ketamine is not considered an opiate. It mainly acts on the NMDA receptors, which is very different from things like oxycodone.

I get 60mg of the racemic ketamine as an infusion every 4 weeks.
Fortunately it’s only 100€ per infusion for me.
I still think it helps with depressive symptoms, including anhedonia.

1 Like

I tried Ketamine infusions and unfortunately they did not help. I am a very severe case however. I am sure that Ketamine can be helpful in some cases