Billionaire Elon Musk said he believes ketamine is a “higher option” for people who find themselves coping with depression than the more widely prescribed antidepressants.
“Depression is overdiagnosed within the U.S., but for some people, it truly is a brain chemistry issue,” Musk wrote on Twitter Tuesday in response to a user who asked if the social media platform had gone “woke” resulting from a mental health-related community note.
“But zombifying individuals with [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] of course happens way an excessive amount of. From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a greater option,” the previous Twitter CEO added.
Before his tweet, the Wall Street Journal published a report claiming that Musk has told people he takes small doses of ketamine to treat depression.
The billionaire also takes full doses of the drug at parties, the publication reported, citing individuals who have witnessed his drug use and others who’ve direct knowledge of it.
International Business Times couldn’t independently confirm this information. Musk didn’t reply to WSJ’s request for comment.
Ketamine, in the shape of pills or through infusions, is typically prescribed by doctors to treat depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, in accordance with the outlet.
First utilized in Belgium within the Sixties as an anesthesia medicine for animals, ketamine was approved as an anesthetic for people by the Food and Drug Administration in 1970.
Dr. Ken Stewart, whose clinic gives patients with treatment-resistant depression research-based ketamine infusions, told WebMD that doctors realized that the drug had powerful effects against depression and suicidal thoughts after it was used to calm agitated patients who attempted to kill themselves.
“Someone is attempting to jump off a bridge they usually give him ketamine within the ambulance to calm him down and 9 months later, he says, ‘I have never felt suicidal for 9 months,'” Stewart, an emergency physician and founding father of Insight Ketamine in Santa Fe, Recent Mexico, told WebMD.
“When enough stories like that began to pile up, doctors said, ‘Perhaps there’s something here,'” he added.
The drug causes what doctors call a “dissociative experience” and what others would consult with as a “trip,” which led to it becoming a famous club drug.
“Ketamine can produce feelings of unreality; visual and sensory distortions; a distorted feeling about one’s body; temporary unusual thoughts and beliefs; and a euphoria or a buzz,” Dr. John Krystal, chief of psychiatry at Yale-Recent Haven Hospital and Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, said.
The doctors said casual use of ketamine wouldn’t treat depression, but they were in a position to develop a protocol for medically supervised use of the drug which will help individuals who don’t find other medications effective.
In response to WebMD, doctors recommend that patients who take ketamine for depression should still proceed with their psychotherapy and their regular antidepressant regimen.
Stewart said that at his clinic, patients undergo a process called integration wherein a medical skilled talks to them following ketamine treatment.
“It’s my sense that this is vital,” Stewart said.
“When people come out of this really profound experience, they’ve so much to say, and these are individuals who have a variety of baggage and a variety of experiential pain. Numerous times, ketamine results in an unpacking of that baggage,” he added.
Krystal called ketamine an “intervention” and said that the “treatment” for depression is far broader and will take weeks and months and extra doses.
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Published by Medicaldaily.com