Are you Depressed? Can Ketamine Offer Relief?

Sometimes It’s About Surviving the Day

If ever in your life you could not pay your electricity bill, you probably were not able to focus on much else. I’m guessing you were not considering ways to improve your relationship with your child, planning a weekend with friends, or even meeting anyone for coffee. You were likely highly stressed and focused only on how you would keep the lights on.

When our basic needs aren’t met, the rest of what might be important cannot be addressed. The mind expends all its energy on securing the necessities to survive. Anything unrelated to making sure you have the essentials is put on the backburner.

Depression Can Be Treatment Resistant

The same goes with severe depression. When depression has disabled you to the extent that you feel hopeful about nothing, sad about everything, and believe life is no longer worth living, it’s virtually impossible to reap the benefits of a therapy session or a walk in the park. Nearly 16 million adults battle major depression, and up to a third do not respond to standard treatment, i.e., antidepressants. For those who do respond to standard treatment, the therapeutic effect with common antidepressant medications can take anywhere from 4-12 weeks to become apparent.

Ketamine Offers Rapid Relief

Low doses of ketamine infusions can produce rapid antidepressant effects in the brain – far sooner than the commonly prescribed antidepressants can relieve depression. In fact, recent studies, such as https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4382138/, have shown the power of ketamine infusion therapy to decrease suicidal ideation within 40 minutes of treatment. This relief can not only save lives of suicidal patients, but can perhaps provide immense relief for patients with treatment resistant depression so they can actually benefit from the therapy session and the walk in the park.