Dealing with depression can make everyday life overwhelming. It could seem like there’s no end to your low and it can be hard to remember what it’s like to feel anything else. For many, finding the right antidepressant feels impossible. Not only is the right match difficult to find, take weeks to start working if they do at all, and come with unwanted and harmful side effects, but it’s impossible to know if there is even an antidepressant that will work for you unless you’ve already found it. Fortunately, with the right treatments, relief from these symptoms is possible.
Most people have asked about possible ways of handling depression without having to try a series of antidepressants. Ketamine therapy is an innovative treatment, and due to its safe, fast-acting, and simple mode of administration, it is an ideal treatment for patients suffering from depression.
What is Ketamine treatment?
Over the past two decades, ketamine has gone from a powerful anesthetic to a promising alternative for mood and pain disorder treatments. This safe but powerful drug, first used as a sedative on the battlefield in the Vietnam War, has become an invaluable resource for various physical and mental issues, known both for its transformative power and speedy results.
How Does Ketamine Work In Treating Depression?
Mounting evidence continues to show that ketamine offers relief for a wide variety of mood and pain disorders. There is still much to be understood about how ketamine alleviates physical and mental issues. Scientists tend to focus on ketamine’s ability to boost the activity of glutamate, a neurotransmitter found throughout the central nervous system. This heightened glutamate activity allows new pathways to form in areas of the brain associated with memory, learning, and mood regulation. Importantly, heightened glutamate corresponds with the inhibition of NMDA receptors which are associated with the physical experience of pain.
Major case studies have shown that ketamine can significantly reduce depression symptoms in about 2 hours after its administration. However, as much as some patients begin to feel relief immediately or after a few days or weeks, a full treatment plan of multiple infusions is most effective.
Dosage And Administration Of Ketamine Therapy
Ketamine treatment is usually administered over a series of sessions which can last for a duration of a few days or weeks. The most common ratio is 0.5mg per 1 kg of a patient’s body weight. However, there is the possibility that patients having a slow response or posing resistance to the treatment may have to undergo repeated sessions for a longer period or with slightly higher doses.
The ketamine dose is administered for about 45-90 minutes. During this period, patients visibly feel the rapid effect of the ketamine treatment and get relief. Some patients may have to undergo a long-term ketamine infusion treatment w to be able to successfully recover from depression.
Is Ketamine Therapy Safe?
Ketamine has a long track record of safety. Its earliest use was as a battlefield sedative for wounded soldiers during the Vietnam war, performing well in high-stakes high-intensity environments. Ketamine has long been a physician and anaesthesiologist favorite for sedating patients due to its wide safety margin.
When the procedure is therapuetic rather than sedative, the safety margin increases. The amount of ketamine infused to achieve neurogenesis and NMDA inhibition, which lead to alleviation of mood and pain disorders, is much less than that required to put someone under for surgery. Accordingly, side effects are infrequent, mild, and short-term. In short there are few treatment options as safe as ketamine.
Ketamine Treatment- The Right Option?
Many patients report finding more significant relief from ketamine infusions, and more rapidly, than from other antidepressant medications.
With the rapid effects that it provides, it is considered to be a better option for handling depression and even suicidal thoughts than most common treatments available today. With the right dosage and administration, ketamine infusion proves to be very therapeutic and effective.
Conclusion
Ketamine treatments have been groundbreaking in addressing chronic mood and pain disorders that have been difficult to treat. Its ability to provide rapid relief against depression with long term success has been especially promising.
Here at New Life Ketamine Clinic, we aim to ensure that you are given safe and effective ketamine treatments. We trust that we can walk you through living a healthier and more productive life by providing safe and rapid relief from depression. At New Life Ketamine Clinic, we bring you hope for a better life and a brighter future and also ensure that every patient is treated with care, compassion, and respect. Contact us today to learn more!
