Just basically, has anyone here tried (or know someone who's tried) ketamine therapy for depression or anxiety?
I have a few family members who do it and they are really happy with the results. It's quite expensive out of pocket and my insurance will not cover it (on rare occasions they do, but I don't meet the criteria). So anyway, worth it if it can help a lot more than ADs have. I will not do talk therapy anymore either. I can live with the status quo, but at this point I'm thinking I shouldn't have to, and I'd love to hear a range of experiences. Thanks.
I have nothing.... but support 💯 ❤️
I have used Ketamine clinically for many years in anesthesia but cannot advise on this other than to say anecdotally that some respond very well to it as an anesthetic adjunct but some do not. What I hear from colleagues and patients using this as an antidepressant med is the same—some respond very well and others do not. Where you fit in that continuum is unknown and two things make it harder to assess possible benefit versus cost: 1) both the proponents of ketamine therapy and the insurance companies have very strong financial motivations; 2) this means the pro-ketamine people will be erring on the side of “this stuff is awesome and everyone should try it” while the insurance companies will set their qualifying criteria to err on the side of “this stuff is very expensive and really only helps a very small percentage of people so we will limit who we allow coverage.”
Apologies that this is not much help just as the above two points are not much help.
(In an ideal single payer world everyone would be covered to bring the administration cost down and allow everyone a chance to try it to see which camp they belong in—the cohort ketamine is very effective for or the other—alas, we don’t live in that world. Yet.)
I know someone who has, and it's been very life-changing for her. The only downside is she has quite a drive to get it.