Non-Opioid Treatment for Chronic Pain
Ketamine infusion for chronic pain has been shown to effective treatment for chronic pain and effective to wean patients from high dose of opioid pain medications.
Everybody has experienced some sort of pain in their life. Chronic pain differs from acute pain that it lasts more than 3 months, time period when you would expect injury causing pain would have healed.
Usually treating the cause of your pain would have been helpful with medications, interventional pain procedures and/or surgeries. Still unfortunately lot of us continue to experience chronic pain even after various treatments.
Chronic pain if untreated affects your thinking, mood and outlook of life. Ketamine provides excellent relief for patients with complex regional pain syndrome(CRPS) and act as fastest acting antidepressant medication.
Chronic pain have detrimental effects on your day to day life and mental health. Studies have shown that brain starts processing things differently when receives prolonged pain signals for extended length of time.
Given that chronic pain has been linked to deranging areas of the brain responsible for sending and receiving pain messages; the cycle of continued pain can feel endless. Those who suffer from chronic pain can, often times, feel hopeless in the pursuit of finding relief.
Unfortunately, patients are often prescribed opiates for chronic pain. Though opiates may appear to be helpful in the immediate circumstance, their effects on the body eventually lead to increased pain sensitivity for the patient. Many patients fall victim to having to continually increase their dosage of opiates, only to find that in the end, they have more pain.
Ketamine for Chronic Pain conditions
How does it work ?
Ketamine works through a different mechanism in the body, it works to repair damaged neural pathways and create new ones as well. Through this mechanism, Ketamine IV therapy offers new hope to patients suffering from chronic pain, an end to the cycle they have endured for far too long.
Generally Ketamine infusions for chronic pain requires higher dose and longer infusions, subjecting patients to additional side effects of Ketamine. Most patients require 6 initial infusions in 2 week period, followed by maintenance infusions. Many patients have successfully wean themselves off from opioids or lower their daily dose of pain medications.
CONCLUSION: Chronic pain conditions especially nerve related pain which is unresponsive to Opioids or other traditional treatment methods can be effectively treated by Ketamine infusions