Ketamine: One of the Most Essential Medications
Ketamine is a well-researched, dissociative anesthetic that was approved by the FDA in 1970. Since then, ketamine has been used extensively for pediatric and adult treatment in surgery, emergency departments, ambulances, trauma medicine, and war zones. The World Health Organization lists ketamine as one of the most essential medications due to its therapeutic effects and wide margin of safety. Ketamine treatment is an intravenous (IV) infusion procedure performed in our licensed mental health clinic by a member of the Nsight functional psychiatry team. The National Institute of Mental Health has been studying ketamine’s effect on depression for more than twenty years.
Ketamine is a multifaceted drug, originally introduced to the medical world as an anesthetic. Its primary use was to provide pain relief and sedation during surgical procedures, and its efficiency in this role ensured its widespread acceptance in the medical community. However, beyond its anesthesia roots, recent scientific investigations have shed light on ketamine’s profound potential in the realm of mental health.
A Highly Researched Drug
Researchers at Yale pioneered this research nearly 20 years ago and published the first major study in 2000. Since then, countless more ketamine studies have been conducted at Yale and other major institutions including NIH, The VA, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Mt. Sinai Medical School, Oxford University, and many more around the world.
Over the last two decades, Yale University and the National Institutes of Health identified additional benefits of ketamine in the treatment of mood disorders and chronic pain. The use of ketamine for depression has been named “the biggest discovery in mental health in decades.Let our treatment options help you cope with your mental health.
More than 70% of patients with treatment-resistant depression (including bipolar patients) experience rapid relief after a low-dose ketamine infusion. Similar success rates have been seen in returning combat veterans suffering from PTSD.
Ketamine has been shown to stimulate neuron growth in the brain in as quickly as one hour. Many scientists studying ketamine are focusing on the neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays an important role in neural activation.
In the past couple of decades, the landscape of mental health treatment has witnessed a surge in the exploration of alternative therapies, especially for conditions that remain resistant to traditional treatments. In this context, ketamine emerged as a promising candidate. Unlike many other treatments, ketamine’s effects on depressive symptoms, for instance, have been observed to be rapid and robust, often providing relief where other medications could not.et our treatment opti
The journey of ketamine, from operating rooms to psychiatric clinics, is a testament to the ever-evolving nature of medical science. As our understanding of the brain advances, so does our ability to repurpose existing drugs in innovative ways, amplifying their potential and offering hope to those in need.