Has anyone tried Spravato?

Has anyone tried the newly-approved (in the US) drug Spravato? I was wondering if it worked as wondrously as it is purported to?

Well, it depends on your condition. Ketamine is "successful" for 30% of treatment-resistant depression sufferers like me for instance.

I'm not saying 30% is bad (it's actually very good), just that its wondrousness depends on your condition.

Sorry, to answer your question, no, I've only tried Ketamine, which made me more depressed, depressingly enough.

it made you worse??? im sorry...i thought it had more than a 30% success rate..

i'd seek out esketamine if it was an emergency and I was sick and tired of going in and out of the useless ER. i have treatment resistant depression and am on an SSRI. basically just lay in bed all day with no energy. but this treatment is only for a few weeks isn't it. why isnt it long term

sming....me too re/ ketamine infusion. Just posted to validate your experience however I'm too depressed to add more at the moment (TRD for decades ad nauseum...) Maybe later?
maydaymayday (New here....L).ooooong time sufferer .

So sorry to hear of the non-success stories. I wish there was something I could say or do to help or give more hope. Virtual hugs to all of you!

I took intranasal ketamine for TRD and it was miraculous. I had to get it from a compounding pharmacy: this was before Spravato came out. I still don't think that there are any places near me where you can do Spravato.

can you tell us more about it??

Hi. Can you share more about ketamine nasal spray? I’m getting ketamine infusions but I’m going to ask my doctor if he would prescribe ketamine nasal spray for maintenance because the infusions work immediately but don’t last as long as I had hoped.

My question is this AD covered by any health insurance including HMOs?

I was on a related oral med that lasts much longer than ketamine infusion does and it was a total depression cure for me. But it is not availanble in the US and it has way too many serious side effects to ever be approved here, so it's a no-go. I will not even mention it because I don't want anyone who is desperate to try to find it. It is just too dangerous.

The problem with the spray, in my personal opinion, is that the doses they are using are way, way, way too low. As you know, when a drug like ketamine from this family is used in a proper dose to treat massive, treatment-resistant depression, the effect is almost immediate and nearly total. My experience was a miracle for my depression. Except for all the bad stuff that happened, too. I think what happened is that the drug company made a decision to try to get it approved at a lower dose, thus reducing FDA anxiety and speeding the approval process, but, in my view, also reducing the long-term usefulness of the drug. They should have taken a bit more time and upped the dose to something more efffective for more people. It would have worked. It will work, once they do it. Plus, they would have made more money in the long run, most likely, because so many more people would be on it eventually. As it stands, it is not a miracle like the infusions or other related compunds have been.

Sending you strength and support. Have you guys ever tried Emsam? I t can sometimes work when other classes haev not. Might be worth reading about maybe.

Geez, seems kind of cruel to mention some miracle drug that cured your depression but refuse to name it, bpcyclist.

It is too dangerous. I am sorry. It almost killed me.

Why even bring it up then? Obviously this is an attempt at seeking attention.

Also, you have no idea what you are talking about in terms of the Spravato dosage. Just because you took an oral medication at x does not mean that a lower dose administered via a nasal spray is ineffective. You are aware that when you consume medication via a mucus membrane it is more potent?

Oral medications have to go through the gastrointestinal system and get filtered out by the liver. Medication ingested through a mucus layer, like Spravato, bypass the GI tract and go directly into your blood stream.

Your speculation about Spravato is counterproductive and misinformed. Your drama about a miracle drug that you are unwilling to discuss is just foolish.

Wow.

Well, just quickly, I am actually not someone who seeks attention, but thanks. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. But you would be in no position to judge that because you do not know me. You know not the first thing about me, my background, what I did or do, my knowledge base and education, what my experience with this class of medications is, or anything else about me, for that matter. So, the attention-seeking comment is just irresponisble and reckless. These kinds of baseless personal accusations have no place on PC, irrepsective of how you may or may not feel about a given post. Personal attacks are completely unacceptble on this site, in my opinion.

I am fully aware of the nuances of mucous membrane-administered medications, but thank you for the lecture. I would be happy to point out all the ways in which your personal beliefs about Spravato are in error, in my view, but I have zero interest in engaging with abusive people and I believe your post was abusive. Suffice it to say that there are a substantial number of patients not responding to it in the current protocol. That is factual information. Enough said.

I am sure you will find this shocking, given the arrogance you just displayed, but you are actually not in charge of telling other PC members what they should and should not post about their personal mental health or medication journeys. My opinion and experience with Spravato and other related medications is no less valid than anyone else's, and no more so, either. Nor did I ever suggest that it was. I was just sharing my experience, just like anyone else on PC. Putting me on blast and personally insulting me and attacking my integrity because you do not agree wth me is just unacceptable conduct on this site. It is abusive. You should go over to facebook, where that kind of thing is really celebrated. You will fit right in.

I take 60 mg of ketamine, intranasally, once a week. This is after trying something like 20 other meds in various combinations for TRD and suicidal ideation. I also have DID-which is actually my main diagnosis and is perhaps why the usual meds don't work for me. Anyway, I saw that the local compounding pharmacy was doing nasal ketamine and asked my pdoc if I could give it a try. We had talked about trying ket infusions, but there are no places within a couple hour drive, and you have to have a driver and go a few times a week and that was just not going to work. We actually talked about other alternative treatments, I am not a candidate for ECT and the like. He said he thought it was worth a try. He didn't even know what kind of a dose to try, actually. But he made a couple of calls and voila! Prescription. And it works. It is hard to describe, but it is something like my brain gets in a rut that leads to suicidal plans and the ketamine knocks me out of that rut. It's like I can't even remember why I was thinking that suicide was a good idea. The effects usually last a week or ten days, sometimes longer. Sometimes shorter. So I sometimes vary the time between doses.


I pay $70 for a month supply, insurance doesn't cover it. But that is obviously way less than infusions and SO worth it. It stings. And it tastes bad. I do a "puff" up each nostril, wait 5 min, do it again, wait 5 min, do it again. Total of 6 "puffs". The waiting 5 min is something that I read about as being the process they used in researching ketamine effects. It usually makes me kind of dopey. It is an anesthetic, after all. I feel kind of loopy, uncoordinated, clumsy, have to think hard in order to talk. Definitely no driving or anything like that. It lasts about an hour. I think I would be ok to drive after 2 hours, but I don't-I take the ket when I am home for the evening. I have been on it for about 2 years. One time it made me high. Like tripping high (which I do remember from other substances long ago). But other than that, not. I am sober for 30 some years and haven't felt any inclination to over use/abuse this-and I am highly alert to that kind of thing.


I'd be happy to answer any other questions.