Marcus Hutchins :verified: on Nostr: It's so wild how we went from Ketamine being an illegal drug to now I'm getting ...
It's so wild how we went from Ketamine being an illegal drug to now I'm getting Instagram ads for "fix your depression/anxiety/whatever by signing up for our Ketamine".
I also extra don't like it, because we don't really know how Ketamine's antidepressant properties work. One of the proposed mechanism is via activation of the K-Opioid receptor, which is the receptor involved in producing negative feelings like dysphoria, anxiety, and disassociation. The body naturally tries to maintain a set balance and responds to increased activation of a receptor by decreasing the sensitivity (which is basically how drug tolerance works).
So it's entirely possible that at least part of Ketamine's anti-depressant activities come from temporarily increasing KOR receptor activity while you're under the influence, essentially forcing the body to build a tolerance to stress/anxiety/disassociation, which takes a while (usually weeks) to subside. So it's possible that what weekly Ketamine treatments are doing is ensuring the KOR receptor remains downregulated by giving you a weekly dose of synthetic stress.
The only problem with that theory, if correct is it's pretty well established that there exists a phenomenon where excessive activation of the KOR system can lead to dysregulation, which results in everything going in the complete opposite direction and the KOR system becomes significantly more sensitive rather than less (this phenomenon seems likely to play a large role in stress & drug induced anxiety, depression, and disassociation). A little bit of stress builds up a tolerance to stress, but too much stress and shit breaks.
We don't really know a whole lot about how it works, why it happens, or how to reverse it. So when you mess with those kinds of drugs in too high doses, you risk permanently exacerbating the condition you were trying to treat (which is why the FDA recommended that it only be administered under medical supervision and not just giving random people ketamine and telling them to go to town). A lot of studies seem to implicate KOR dysregulation in a huge number of psychiatric conditions, as well as drug addiction.
I also extra don't like it, because we don't really know how Ketamine's antidepressant properties work. One of the proposed mechanism is via activation of the K-Opioid receptor, which is the receptor involved in producing negative feelings like dysphoria, anxiety, and disassociation. The body naturally tries to maintain a set balance and responds to increased activation of a receptor by decreasing the sensitivity (which is basically how drug tolerance works).
So it's entirely possible that at least part of Ketamine's anti-depressant activities come from temporarily increasing KOR receptor activity while you're under the influence, essentially forcing the body to build a tolerance to stress/anxiety/disassociation, which takes a while (usually weeks) to subside. So it's possible that what weekly Ketamine treatments are doing is ensuring the KOR receptor remains downregulated by giving you a weekly dose of synthetic stress.
The only problem with that theory, if correct is it's pretty well established that there exists a phenomenon where excessive activation of the KOR system can lead to dysregulation, which results in everything going in the complete opposite direction and the KOR system becomes significantly more sensitive rather than less (this phenomenon seems likely to play a large role in stress & drug induced anxiety, depression, and disassociation). A little bit of stress builds up a tolerance to stress, but too much stress and shit breaks.
We don't really know a whole lot about how it works, why it happens, or how to reverse it. So when you mess with those kinds of drugs in too high doses, you risk permanently exacerbating the condition you were trying to treat (which is why the FDA recommended that it only be administered under medical supervision and not just giving random people ketamine and telling them to go to town). A lot of studies seem to implicate KOR dysregulation in a huge number of psychiatric conditions, as well as drug addiction.