science

To start I have to say it can be pretty expensive. I'm in the US and insurance won't cover it, they can't get IV ketamine "approved" for depression because there's no money to be made off the drug itself because of how old it is. It's one of the cheapest drugs to make so the money is just for the people watching you sit there I guess. There's nasal spray "esketamine" which my doctors don't recommend bc with IV its easier to control the dose, that got approved because it has a patent, so it's technically possible to get that covered but in my experience providers of that also choose to not take insurance.

I'm sure you could find a doctor with any kind of opinion but mostly they don't use it as a first line of treatment because of how involved it is. So I'm not sure if someone who hasn't been on any antidepressants before would have good chances getting it prescribed. A couple years ago I read a lot of things where they were recommending it to treatment resistant patients mostly, which is 3+ meds unsuccessful. Also most doctors will want you to be on another antidepressant aside from the ketamine. I stopped taking mine without mentioning it because it wasn't doing anything. lol

As for the actual treatment. It takes like an hour and they give you a little bit every 10 minutes or so and then just let you sit until you're good to leave. It's an anesthetic so she should have someone go with her because she'll probably be disoriented for a little bit. The half life is very short though so any side effects should be gone within a couple hours. I've seen people online talk about it like being high or about "k holes" or w/e but I think they're being dramatic. When I get it I feel a little out of it, kinda physically numb, and the room does look a bit strange as if the distance between everything and/or size of objects has been altered slightly, but nothing too serious. You mentioned she has trauma. If she has any significant amount of dissociative symptoms from that then her brain probably hits her with way more heavy experiences than the small amount of ketamine would, at least that's how it is for me. I usually text or read things online the whole time idk.

Symptom relief is pretty immediate. Your mood improves within a few hours usually. For people currently in an episode getting treatment for the first time they get a bunch of treatments every few days for a couple weeks. It's not always long lasting, some studies say there's a drop off after like 2 weeks no treatment. But most doctors that do it say people can usually start spreading out appointments much longer than that. I get a headache afterwards until I sleep it off so usually I notice the difference in symptoms from when I wake up from that. lol Since I started it I can kinda enjoy things again whereas before treatment I had stopped bothering to even try playing video games anymore, and those things are designed to keep your constant attention with little dopamine hits. I can hold a job now, even if it's not always easy (I do have other physical and mental health issues so I can't say how much is lingering depression). I even can focus enough to read sometimes. No suicide attempts since, almost no self harm and if it was it from ptsd so it had a clear trigger. I remember to eat more often and take care of hygiene. I socialize more. Pretty much everything is much better, not perfect of course but yeah.

I think that about covers what I can say without being prompted by more specific questions. lol