Depression the mind killer

Depression can induce a state of total self neglect, no drive and a no way of receiving pleasure.

It often also has serious cognitive effects on people.
Weak short-time memory, loss of ability to focus on anything that before depression struck would be interesting and/or rewarding for the person concerned.

The brain is bombarded with self-defeating thoughts, bad memories and leaves no energy for analytic problem solving or much of anything really.

These deficits can lead to a loss of quality of life, ability to function at work and in ones social life.

Ketamine has shown some potential in being an alternative in how to treat depression naturally but much research remains.

Ketamine: Dreams and Realities by Karl Jansen

Ketamine: Dreams and Realities is a non-biased and comprehensive overview of the drug ketamine. It covers everything from its recreational use in the dance community, its use as an adjunct to psychotherapy as an aid in overcoming chemical dependency and alcoholism, to the types of mystical experiences induced by ketamine. This book includes information on the possible benfits and dangers of ketamine use along with an authoratative treatment plan for individuals who become addicted to the drug. It is wealth of information for both laypersons and medical professionals alike. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

 Review:

An unparalleled work on Ketamine

 Dr. Jansen is undoubtedly the world's leading authority on Ketamine, its history, applications, benefits, and risks. Ketamine: Dreams and Realities contains over 300 pages of invaluable information on this remarkable substance deemed both an anesthetic and psychedelic. It addresses everything you've wondered about this amazing chemical from physiologic descriptions to existential inference. His objective accounts are thorough and insightful as well as extremely logical and convincing. There are literally hundreds of references that are well worth the cost of the book alone, not to mention all of the valuable information contained within. His style entrances you like a powerful book should, and takes you on an intuitive and multisided journey through the history, use, misuse, and future of the drug. Unique and rare information is included to both support his assertions and entertain the reader. Most notably he relates the effects of Ketamine to the near-death/near-birth experience, the quantum mind, and the metaphorical mental modem. Having coined the term "Quantum Psychiatry" Dr. Jansen explains how the Newtonian model of the universe is being reassessed in light of the evolving understanding of modern and quantum physics. Never before have I read such a comprehensible and clearly written work on this topic. I strongly recommend this book to both the professional and layperson wanting to know specifically about this amazing psychedelic or the nature of our existence. It is extremely well written and thoroughly documented. Having donated 100% of the profits from the sale of this book to ketamine psychotherapy research Dr. Jansen demonstrates his passion for his work and undoubtedly will go down in history amongst such spiritual pioneers such as Aldus Huxley, Stanislav Grof, and Albert Hoffman to name a few.

Ketamine: Depression Cure, Better Than Morphine, or Dumb High?

Wow, ketamine is in the news these days. It’s being touted as a cure for depression. And not just by the media. We have several small studies being done on resistant major depression patients with good results. But without a defined mechanism, the concept of a depression cure needs a bit more work. Why? Read on. Another use for ketamine is combining it with opiods for pain relief. In this it seems to help. The combination is really a medical version of what “special K” was used on the street for in the 1990s: as a support for another drug to make its effect more powerful. But what about the depressed folks? Well, we don’t have a group of patients we can overdose on ketamine, but they did that to a bunch of monkeys (here’s the abstract). The results were not pretty. Ketamine in your brain blocks a receptor “triggering excessive glutamate release and subsequent cortical excitation which may induce psychosis-like behavior and cognitive anomalies. Growing evidence suggests that acute ketamine administration can provoke dose-dependent positive and negative schizophrenia-like symptoms.” So our friends with the sudden improvement in depression may have just been going a different, and not-so-good direction. But that’s just acute use. Chronic use of ketamine generated “accompanied by diminished total movement compared with the controls. Importantly, the mesolimbic, mesocortical and entorhinal-striatal systems were found to be functionally vulnerable to ketamine’s chronic effects. Dysfunctions of these neural circuits have been implicated in several neuropsychiatric disorders including depression, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder.” Oops. Maybe ketamine isn’t the miracle drug for depression we’d like it to be. What about recreational use? I cannot speak to this as elequently as this wonderful gentleman from Gawker who did a great deal of special K back in the day. He says it’s the dumbest drug ever.

NATIONWIDE RECRUITMENT–BIPOLAR DISORDER RESEARCH STUDY: ANTIDEPRESSANT RAPID EFFECTS OF KETAMINE

Individuals who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder may be able to participate in a trial designed to understand the causes of depression and rapid antidepressant response. Specifically, this study is testing whether ketamine, a drug that affects glutamate in the brain, will improve symptoms of depression within a matter of hours. Individuals between 18 and 65 years of age who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and previously failed to respond to treatment may be eligible for an inpatient trial designed to bring about a rapid antidepressant effect. After completion of the study the participant is transitioned back to a clinician in the community. In addition, all research participation is without cost and NIMH will cover all transportation costs from anywhere in the United States. Compensation is provided for study procedures. To find out more information, please call 1-877-MIND-NIH (1-877-646-3644) or email moodresearch@mail.nih.gov. For more information on research conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD click here http://patientinfo.nimh.nih.gov.

Ketamine Study Doc Says Don't Try 'Special K' On Your Own To Fight Depression

Earlier this week, NPR ran a series of reports on a study conducted in Houston that found ketamine might be highly effective in treating severe cases of depression. Ketamine is an animal tranquilizer. It's also a party drug known as "Special K". The lead doctor in the study says ketamine's potential ability to fight depression should not be tested at home.

Dr. Sanjay Mathew is the director of the Mood Disorders Program at Baylor College of Medicine. He says whenever there's a story about an illicit drug effectively treating a chronic condition, there's always the chance that people who suffer from those ailments will self-medicate with drugs they buy off the street. Dr. Mathew says it's happened before with marijuana, when it was found to help nausea in chemo patients, and with prescription amphetamines. "Which are, of course, legal for the use in Attention Deficit Disorder. So that would dextroamphetamine, or drugs like Ritalin, or methylphenidates, which also have abuse liability and have to be closely monitored." Dr. Mathew says people using ketamine for depression outside a clinical setting would have no help to handle the potential side effects: "Including psychotic episodes or psychotic symptoms. There could be risk of very high blood pressure. And there could be the risk, in very high doses, of stroke. And there could also be the risk of respiratory depression." Dr. Mathew says patients in the ketamine trials receive controlled doses by IV. And doctors monitor the patients for hours after an infusion. Dr. Mathew says some doctors are already using ketamine for depression, even though the FDA hasn't specifically approved it for that purpose. That's not a practice he would recommend, because there's not enough information yet on the drug's efficacy and safety.

Ketamine May Relieve Depression Quickly for Those With Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Disorder

A single intravenous dose of the anesthetic agent ketamine appears to reduce symptoms of depression within 40 minutes among those with bipolar disorder who have not responded to other treatments, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. "Bipolar disorder is one of the most severe psychiatric disorders and ranks in the top 10 causes of medical disability worldwide," the authors write as background information in the article. About 4 percent of Americans will develop bipolar disorder in their lifetimes, and depressive symptoms dominate for most of the course of the illness. Several treatments for bipolar depression are currently approved, but some patients do not respond to these therapies despite adequate trials. In addition, existing treatments are associated with a lag of onset; most patients do not respond within the first week of therapy, resulting in considerable illness and increased suicide risk. One reason for the lack of better therapies is a limited understanding of the neurobiological basis of bipolar disorder, the authors note. However, recent research suggest dysfunction in the brain's glutamatergic system -- which plays a role in information processing and memory formation -- may contribute. Nancy Diazgranados, M.D., M.S., and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md., assessed the effectiveness of one modulator of this system -- ketamine hydrochloride, commonly used as an anesthetic -- for bipolar depression. From October 2006 through June 2009, 18 participants with bipolar depression that had failed to respond to the medications lithium or valproate received an intravenous infusion of either ketamine or a placebo on two test days two weeks apart. The order of the infusions was randomly assigned. Participants were assessed using a depression rating scale before each injection and then 40, 80, 120 and 230 minutes and one, two, three, seven, 10 and 14 days afterward. Within 40 minutes, those who received ketamine experienced a significant improvement in depressive symptoms compared with those who took placebo, an improvement that was largest at day two and remained significant through day three. At some point during the course of the trial, 71 percent of participants responded to ketamine and 6 percent responded to placebo. "These findings are particularly noteworthy because a substantial proportion of study participants had been prescribed complex polypharmacy regimens in the past with substantial treatment failures," the authors write. "The mean [average] number of past antidepressant trials was seven, and more than 55 percent of participants failed to respond to electroconvulsive therapy. The toll of this protracted and refractory illness on the subjects was evident, in that two-thirds of participants were on psychiatric disability and nearly all were unemployed." No serious adverse effects were reported during the study. The results lend support to the hypothesis that the glutamatergic system is implicated in the development of bipolar disorder, and that targeting it may lead to improved therapies. "Future research will need to address whether differences in kinetics associated with intravenous administration -- which allows for faster absorption and avoids hepatic metabolism -- are important or necessary for rapid antidepressant effects to occur," the authors write. In addition, "future studies should examine strategies for long-term maintenance of ketamine's rapid antidepressant response." Funding for this work was supported by the Intramural Research Program at the NIMH, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, and by a National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Award.

Hope Continues to Grow for Ketamine in Severe Depression

Emergency psychiatrists and others who deal with patients in an acute suicidal crisis have long hoped for the discovery of a fast-acting medication to relieve the severe depression that has driven many of these patients to attempt suicide. While there are effective antidepressants on the market, they often take weeks to bring about improvement. In Houston's Ben Taub General Hospital, where about 5,000 people annually require emergency psychiatric evaluation, psychiatrists are studying whether the anesthetic ketamine might be a magic bullet to quickly bring patients out of the throes of severe depression, reported NPR on January 30. In a double-blind study, psychiatrist Sanjay Mathew, M.D., and colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine are giving ketamine to severely ill patients who have not responded to SSRIs or other antidepressants. Unlike drugs that target serotonin, ketamine activates the glutamate system. Read more about the potential role of ketamine in treating depression in Psychiatric News.

Depression lurks in and around K-Valley

Getting up in the morning with a feeling that you’re useless and your life should end right there and then isn’t something one would wish for. But for some, it’s the reality. Rapid urbanization in the capital city has pressurized many, including the youth population, to work harder and get life going, only to realize that they aren’t getting what they want and falling into what many may presume to be mental illness – depression. “I stopped enjoying things I used to like. I stopped socializing and I really thought that my life had to end and that I had no reason to live anymore,” says Deepak (name changed for privacy). As a student in the US, Deepak had a tough time working in his research due to unavailability of grants and labs which eventually turned to frustration and depression. He took to alcohol, hoping it would fix things, but to no avail. “I went to the student counselor [in my college] for help and it helped me to some extent,” he adds. For Deepak, returning home and coming back to reality was a gradual process. But he says that he’s much more social now after medical treatment. According to Dr. Surendra Sherchan, Acting Director at Nepal Mental Hospital in Patan, though depression has become a common problem at present, there’s a solution to it. He says, “With proper medical attention and medication, one can come out of depression and it doesn’t have to be the end of life.”

Sumi (name changed) thinks that she may be suffering from depression. Heartbroken after a failed relationship, she battles the urge to slip into the darkness that depression can be seen as. Moreover, she doesn’t know where she should go for consultation. “My family doesn’t know what I’m going through and I don’t think they will understand, either. But my friends recommend that I see a psychiatrist. But again, our society is such that if anyone knows about it, I may be tagged as a mental patient,” worries Sumi. Many in Nepal may be facing similar situations but Dr. Sherchan recommends one to see a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist who is available in major hospitals for consultation. “There are three types of depression: mild, moderate, and severe. Mild and moderate depression can be treated easily but severe cases may need medication for some time, depending on the situation,” informs the doctor. Dinesh (also name changed) underwent severe depression and started taking drugs until his family found out about it and took him to a doctor. “I was insane and I didn’t know what I was doing. But I did what I did because it, in some ways, gave me happiness,” says he. He, for one, fell into depression because his family wanted him to study harder but he couldn’t meet their expectations. “When I couldn’t study further, I started working. I had money to spend. First, it was alcohol and then eventually drugs,” he says. “The problem is growing among youths because of failed relationships, or not enough support and guidance available from parents. They live in nuclear families and easily have access to substances and its abuse,” shares Dr. Sherchan. Mood swings, rash behavior, sleeping problems, alcohol and drug abuse, lower performance capacity than usual at work or in school, distress, heavy feelings, low memory power, and peculiar negative feelings are all symptoms of depression, according to him. Dr. Sherchan suggests that those who think have depression symptoms, they can cure it themselves by joining activities like exercising, sports, yoga, meditation, socializing more and other fruitful activities, which will increase one’s resilience power. “My life back when I had depression had no meaning and I thought it was the end of the line. But now it’s a different scenario and I’m much happier,” shares Deepak. “Committing suicide out of depression or just letting the disease linger on isn’t the way out and is, definitely, not a solution. Help is around the corner and visiting a doctor for consultation is perfectly fine. People need to realize that this is a common disorder in developing nations and it can be treated with medical attention in time,” says an optimistic Dr Sherchan.