Ketamine Therapy: A New Hope for the Future
NuMed provides IM ketamine therapy. Ketamine is an FDA approved medication that has been safely used for decades, and it is now emerging as a highly effective treatment for a diverse range of challenging conditions such as:
- Treatment-resistant depression (Major depressive disorder)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety
- Chronic pain
Our expert team creates tailored therapy plans that combine intra-muscular ketamine therapy with psychotherapy and other medical treatments to help you rediscover the full life you may have thought forever lost.
Depression
There is clearly a biochemical component to how ketamine treats depression. The exact mechanism (as with many treatments for mental health) is not totally understood. One of the leading theories is that ketamine blocks the NMDA receptor which causes an increase in a chemical called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). This increase in BDNF causes new synapses (connections) to be created in the brain which in turn improves one’s mood. While this is certainly important, we believe that this is only one part of how ketamine treats depression.
PTSD
One way to conceptualize post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is that it is like being forced to listen to a radio station you hate. The same content gets broadcasted over and over and over. Traditional treatments like Zoloft, Seroquel, and Xanax only serve to “turn down the volume”…but the station remains the same. Ketamine breaks this paradigm because it has the potential to “change the channel.”
Anxiety
We leverage the “psychedelic” aspect of ketamine in a safe and controlled way. The vast majority of our patients with severe anxiety report that ketamine washes away their anxiety. We feel that this is related to the concept of ego disillusion. Your ego is a liar that creates a false narrative. It is what fills you with limiting beliefs and forces you to worry about things that are really not worth worrying about. Many of our patients report that they can disconnect from themselves and many reports having a sense of being able to see themselves from the perspective of an outside observer. One of our patients said it very well when he reported,” you know I just can’t remember what I was anxious about.”
Chronic Pain
One of the most interesting things about ketamine therapy is that it is not only effective for the treatment of depression and other mental health conditions, but it is very effective at breaking the cycle of many forms of chronic pain. It does each of these through different mechanisms, but the net result is a very impressive synergy because, for most patients who endure chronic pain, there is frequently coexistent depression and/or PTSD. Since its inception in 2015, Klarisana has been one of the most progressive centers in the US at using ketamine to derail chronic pain and help patients decrease or eliminate the use of dangerous opioid pain medications.