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Ketamine for Treatment Resistant Depression
About Ketamine for Treatment Resistant Depression
In 2019 prior to the pandemic, nearly 50 million Americans suffered from depression. Since the pandemic, that number has tripled. Depression is a debilitating disorder, disrupting one’s quality of life, cognitive functions, mood, and overall health. Treatments, medications, and therapy are sought out widely, and often, desperately to treat depression disorders.
The curse of Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD)
There are countless treatments and resources for depression, and while many are successful and effective, there are some adults that have not found anything they respond to that provides positive results, due to Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD). Those with TRD often find dose and duration of conventional medications, treatments, and therapy for depression are inadequate or incapable entirely in treating depression.
Ketamine surprises researchers
TRD sufferers didn’t have any other alternatives in relieving and healing from depression, until some researchers at Yale University discovered something promising.
At Yale University in the 1990s, researchers discovered that small doses of the pediatric anesthetic, ketamine, had immediate and positive results for depression. Used primarily as only an anesthetic to numb and put patient into a trance-like state for medical procedures, controlled doses of Ketamine proved to be effective and even regenerative for brain damage caused by depression in TRD patients.
Since then, studies and treatments for Treatment Resistant Depression using ketamine have grown exponentially.
Breaking stigmas
Before Yale’s discovery in the 90s, ketamine was used as an agent for induction of anesthesia in children and youth. It has also been used illegally as a party drug, with reports of similar highs to LSD and other illegal drugs. Ketamine as a treatment for TRD is breaking stigmas associated with the drug and widening its medical capabilities through psychiatric use in treating TRD.
The science behind it
Research has found that ketamine regenerates the synaptic transmission in the brain, which is often damaged through prolonged depression and stress. Unlike other antidepressants, ketamine is able to specifically target these neurotransmitters and heal the brain cells, providing immediate and lasting results against depression.
Ketamine provides instant results, compared to antidepressant drugs which often take weeks to finally begin seeing its impacts, and sometimes, only to find that the drug is ineffective in the end in treating depression. Reports of a single dose of ketamine results in in effectiveness immediately. It eliminates the dreaded trial and error waiting period for other pharmaceutical antidepressants.
Promising research
The data is currently limited for ketamine treatment, and trials for dose, duration, its efficacy, and safety are still being conducted. However, the success has so far been promising since its discovery at Yale University, proving ketamine to bring consistent and significant results for its users.
Those with depression know how paralyzing living with depression can be. Having treatments and pharmaceuticals not work often only adds to those feelings of despair and hopelessness.
Ketamine therapy is breaking through the glass ceiling of Treatment Resistant Depression methods, offering solutions and alternatives to TRD sufferers, many of whom have been on long journeys of trying everything and anything under the sun to treat and heal from depression. Ketamine offers a renewed hope and regeneration for TRD patients, where nothing else had before.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation for ketamine infusion treatment.