Hope to get Ketamine therapy soon.

I've had a really rough last three months in which I temporarily lost my ability to drive, I lost my appartment, was kicked out of my temporary living situation by my wife of fourteen years two weeks ago who is planning on filing for divorce, have lost my ability to work for the foreseeable future, have had two hospitalizations for depression and anxiety, have been diagnosed with ADD, major depression, generalized anxiety, and a personality disorder, an eating disorder and am now living in my car, with no financial recourses. My current state of depression means I'm in a perpetual state of mild confusion, and today I got discharged from my hospital outpatient program. I feel so overwhelmed, and Still so many people I have known throughout my life somehow think I'm just making this up!

I have two college degrees, a remarkably high IQ, I'm well spoken, continue to take pride in my appearance out of self respect, but the truth is I'm really struggling, haven't worked in three months and just don't have the same mental capacity with memory, attention, and organization that I used to.

I'm the plus side, I just got emergency food assistance for which I'm so grateful. I maintain a close personal relationship with God, and I still seem to be able to make beautiful art at a level I've never achieved before. I have access to a great day program, and if I can manage to somehow pay off the IRS, meet my basic needs and come up with 8k I have been approved for ketamine therapy which claims to have an 85% success rate in treating treatment resistant depression. God's will be done.

You sound like an amazingly strong person. I pray for you that you can get access to housing and the support and help you need. I have been undergoing ketamine treatments for a while now. I'm on my 20 th treatment and it has helped with the more severe symptoms of my treatment resistant depression. The suicidal thoughts are much less and I'm finally more active and able to engage with people. But I still have significant symptoms that are preventing me from fully functioning and being able to get back to work. Just like all medications ketamine results can vary from person to person. But there definitely are people that respond well and quickly and I pray that happens for you.

Just wondering.....I’m not sure I understand these posts on this thread.

So Ketamine therapy is now “legal?” How do you get approved for this type of therapy? I’ve been labeled “treatment resistant” for 26 yrs.

Last time I looked into it, insurance wouldn’t touch it & it was outrageously expensive to do on my own.
I also haven’t seen the data that it says it’s 85% successful. ???
Do you have any testing info on it...I haven’t read any actual studies on humans yet....mammals, yes.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

Yeah, Insurance won't pay. It's like an 8k commitment, then booster treatments are like 750

Thanks. So the price hasn’t changed much since the last time I really looked into it. Must be for the upper class depressed people lol.

MODS I hope this is all right to post.
If you look at Ketamine Service | McLean Hospital it may answer some questions.

I , personally have had ketamine along with ECT. I did notice a positive effect.

If you petition the insurance company, there's a chance it will pay. The cost now is approx. $500 per infusion. Some people only need one infusion.

Hoping and praying that you're doing better. My thoughts are with you .

Insurance won't cover it yet because it is not yet FDA approved for depression. But it is completely legal. My guess is that people will eventually do clinical trials and get it FDA approved.

I went through ketamine infusion treatments and I live in California. The cost was $400/infusion. But my insurance did pay a small amount for the hospital/nursing care that goes with setting up and monitoring someone while they are getting the 40 minute intravenous infusion and then recovery time.
There are human studies out there, the link below is one example. You can go to pubmed to find more studies too. But yes it's ridiculously expensive and our health care system is so messed up that the price can very greatly. It's disgusting that our health care system takes advantage of desperately ill people. It seems the response rate varies depending upon the source, anywhere from 60 -80%. But the problem can be the response is short lived. They're also working on an intranasal spray es-ketamine but its not approved yet.

Serum BDNF as a peripheral biomarker of treatment-resistant depression and the rapid antidepressant response: A comparison of ketamine and ECT. - PubMed - NCBI