Ketamine
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine was developed 50 years ago and has been used as an anesthetic, during surgery, since the 1960s. Recent research demonstrates that Ketamine is rapidly effective, within hours, in treating multiple mental and physical conditions.
Ketamine Uses:
Ketamine has been found to effectively treat the following conditions, many of which have not been receptive to conventional treatment approaches:
- Unipolar and Bipolar depression- including suicidal ideations
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety disorder
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) or Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic Migraine
- Small fiber neuropathy
How does Ketamine works ?
Chronic pain, depression and anxiety damage the areas of the brain responsible for memory, learning and higher-order thinking. These traumatized and irritated nerve endings are responsible for depressed mood, anxiety and transmitting pain signals directly to the brain.
Ketamine promotes the biochemicals necessary to repair this damage, within hours, by creating new pathways with new nerve endings. These new nerve endings act as highways for healthy communication to occur with the brain. The process essentially reboots our brain and central pain centers, providing long-term relief. Therefore, Ketamine may provide lasting relief from depression. This process and effects act in contrast to the effects of opiates on the body; opiates have been shown to increase pain sensitivity in patients, over time.
Ketamine IV therapy is often used when other treatment modalities have failed. For patients suffering from chronic pain, moderate to severe depression, PTSD or anxiety, completing IV therapy requires a patient to undergo a series of low dose Ketamine infusions.
Generally, treatment is well-tolerated, however; certain patients may experience side-effects, some of which may require discontinuation of therapy. Though recent research shows promise for the use of Ketamine for the above listed conditions; unti recently FDA w considered use of Ketamine for anything other than an anesthetic as off-label prescribing.
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Ketamine Infusion for Depression
Depression is widely prevalent all over the world. 1 in 5 individuals are affected with depression. Although mental health treatment has come a long way, but still 30 percent (1/3rd) of individuals do not respond to traditional treatment methods, and called to have Treatment resistant depression (TRD). Often, patients endure many attempts at seeking relief and improvement from medications and other forms of therapy. Combination of anti-depressants, addition of anti-epileptics/mood stabilizers, addition of antipsychotics, ECT, TMS therapy are alternative way to treat Treatment resistant depression.
Research has demonstrated that Ketamine IV therapy can effectively and quickly help manage treatment resistant mood disorder, in a safe manner, thereby allowing patients to return to an active and more fulfilling lifestyle.
Ketamine IV therapy has been effectively utilized in the treatment of depression, PTSD or Anxiety disorder that has been resistant to other treatment methods. Ketamine works to repair deranged areas of the brain that lead to the continuation of depressive or other mental health symptoms.
Ketamine Infusion for Chronic Pain
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 or trauma causing pain would have healed.
Usually treating the cause of your pain have been helpful, but after trials of multiple medications, interventional pain management, surgeries. You may still continue to experience chronic pain. 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 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.
CONCLUSION: Ketamine has been used safely and effectively for treatment resistant Mood disorder and Chronic pain conditions where convential treatment hasn’t been successful