<story><title>Ketamine’s effect bolsters a new theory of mental illness</title><url>http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/a-vaccine-for-depression</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>astazangasta</author><text>I have been depressed a significant fraction of my adult life. I am also a biologist who abhors the medical description of this problem. I don&amp;#x27;t even like the word &amp;#x27;mental illness&amp;#x27;. This shit is not an illness, its a normal response to a fucked up life! Can I get at least some acknowledgment of this fact?&lt;p&gt;The sine qua non for me was an issue of Nature a few years back that focused on depression, talked about how prevalent it is, how it is a &amp;#x27;drain on productivity&amp;#x27;, etc. Included therein was a graph of the worst affected populations, topping the list was Afghanistan. This passed without comment. How about: &amp;#x27;hey, the cause of depression seems to be human misery, like war, unemployment, alienation, etc.&amp;#x27;&lt;p&gt;But you can&amp;#x27;t sell a fucking pill to cure war and alienation, so ...</text></comment>
<story><title>Ketamine’s effect bolsters a new theory of mental illness</title><url>http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/a-vaccine-for-depression</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>DanBC</author><text>Ketamine is an exciting experimental approach for depression (especially with suicidal thinking) and anhedonia.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelancet.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;lanpsy&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;PIIS2215-0366(15)00392-2&amp;#x2F;fulltext&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thelancet.com&amp;#x2F;journals&amp;#x2F;lanpsy&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;PIIS2215-03...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Researchers seem to be using an infusion of 5 mg per kg of body weight.  That means you don&amp;#x27;t give a bunch of pills to a patient, which in itself helps a bit to reduce risk.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a bit of a web-based discussion here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=5b6zrpd1trk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=5b6zrpd1trk&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>