cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/8180477
Why this is significant: There is no currently known treatment to stop suicidal thoughts when they happen. Antidepressants take 4-6 weeks to start working, and they don’t work for everyone. Therapy also takes time. Our best option for acutely suicidal people is to lock them up in a psychiatric facility until they are no longer a threat to themselves.
Intravenous ketamine offers a glimpse of hope. A single dose appears able to alleviate suicidal ideation immediately after administration and for up to a week afterwards.
What’s “expensive”?
About $300 per session. The ketamine itself is cheap, the doctor’s time is what you’re paying for.
Was gonna say, I don’t remember ket being that expensive through the, err, unregular channels. Then again I’m not in America this would just be free here.
Do people do ketamine infusions where you are?
Not sure what you mean with infusion, I assumed IV meant intra-venous, which, yeah some folks do that unfortunately, though now that I think about it I think it would mostly be done intra-muscular (in a muscle rather than a vein).
You’re saying it would be free in your country. I’m saying that this is already a practice so my question is do people already do it there and is it already free there?
Oh right, gotcha. No I have no idea if it’s done sorry, I only have information about the illegal use of it…
There’s a clinic in Denver that offers it for like $1500 per session.