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I believe the ketamine anti-depressant experiments use a different anesthetic to put subjects under in order to split the trip experience from the lower-level c
by gwern 9y ago
I believe the ketamine anti-depressant experiments use a different anesthetic to put subjects under in order to split the trip experience from the lower-level chemical effects, and still find benefits. If the trip itself is not necessary for ketamine, that makes it more plausible that it's not necessary for psilocybin etc.
(Of course, this doesn't rule out the possibility that much of the benefit is coming from after the trip during regular life based on experiencing regular life with 'reset' neurons under the Carhart-Harris/Nutt interpretation.)
- amigoingtodie 9y agoKetamine is used as a disassociative, though.
- pizza 9y agoThe categories aren't necessarily as clear cut as label -> effect, though, as in psychedelics (including psilocybin and its relatives) can be dissociating, and ketamine (and other dissociatives) can be psychedelic. That said, not because of particularly similar physiology; they certainly have different receptor targets.
- bramen 9y agoThe experiments I've read about don't use any additional anaesthetic. They just give people a low but still noticeable dose intravenously. Some people reported mild and transient unpleasantness during the treatment due to the drug's effects.