[chimeracoder]

> Its relief is temporary. Clinical trials at NIMH have found that relapse usually occurs about a week after a single infusion." It then goes on to talk about possibly alleviating this with booster treatments.

I know some people will naturally object to this, but to be honest - assuming people don't build up a tolerance to the effects[0], what's wrong with that?

People are accustomed to taking all sorts of drugs on a daily basis, from antidepressants to sleeping aids to coffee (caffeine!). If someone invented from scratch an antidepressant that could only be taken once a week, we'd be heralding it as a miracle drug.

The main opposition to Ketamine is likely to be its history of recreational use ("Special K"). But that narrative - opposing medicine because of its potential psychoactive effects - is nothing new.

[0] I don't mean a tolerance to Ketamine in general, but a tolerance to this anti-depressive effect

[rincebrain]

The basic problem is that it requires IV infusion, not oral or nasal administration (trials of the latter have issues with consistent dosage, AIUI), and that requires trips to a doctor to do, weekly.

[arthur_pryor]

if anything, for people who are trying to be functional, you'd want to gain tolerance to the recreational effects, but not the anti-depressant effects. tolerance to both seems more likely, but hopefully tolerance to the former outpaces the latter.