Ketamine OLD

Ketamine is extremely useful in situations where someone has a lot of momentum pulling them in a specific direction in life.  Ketamine stops that momentum and allows people to tell a new story.

Conditions that Ketamine Can be used to treat include:

• PTSD, treatment and prevention of
• Depression, reduces suicidal ideation within hours (higher levels of glutamate)
• Anxiety, especially drug-resistant types
• Bipolar Depression
• Neuropathic Pain, Fibromyalgia, Lyme disease

• Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• Addiction
• Asthma

How Ketamine Works

Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist, which means that it blocks nervous excitation, calming the brain down.  This stops the momentum of the present dominant thought patterns and psychological processes.

By blocking NMDA receptors, and thereby reducing nervous system activation, ketamine resets the Default Mode Network (DMN).  The DMN is what your brain is doing when it isn’t consciously focused on anything.  Another way of describing the DMN is how your brain has been calibrated to deal with its environment since childhood.

Ketamine also increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): A hormone that supports neuronal survival, development, and function.  This means that ketamine helps the brain to heal, after a concussion for example.

BDNF also promotes synaptogenesis, the ability of the brain to make new connections.  This is how ketamine functions to help people tell a new story and take their life in a new direction.

The basic ketamine treatment is based on the national institutes for health study that determined that 6 treatments over two weeks was effective in reducing the symptoms of depression.

When it comes to chronic pain, we add procaine to the ketamine.  The procaine blocks the pain at the nerve level while ketamine recalibrates the brain via BDNF.  We also use higher doses of ketamine over a longer time period than the standard dose for mood conditions.

Is ketamine safe?

Yes, when used in a clinical setting we are able to monitor vitals and administer medications to control side effects

What are the side effects?

The most common side effects of ketamine treatment are a temporary elevation of blood pressure (usually no more than 10 to 20 points in systolic pressure) and nausea/vomiting.  Both are well controlled with the administration of oral medications if necessary.

How long does it last?