Understanding Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

ketamine for depression anxiety
credit: Annie Spratt

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Ketamine is a widely used dissociative drug that is often used to treat chronic psychological conditions. Ketamine creates a feeling of distortion. The drug’s potential to treat addiction patients, depression, and anxiety disorders has lately received tremendous consideration. Ketamine therapy is one of the most sorted treatments for the treatment of drug addicts.

Some antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They raise serotonin levels by keeping neurons from taking serotonin back into their cells. Not everyone reacts the same way to medications, and some people can face side effects. Ketamine therapy can effectively prolong drug addiction by rearranging neural networks.

If you want a different kind of therapy to treat drug addiction, you should think about ketamine therapy.

What is Ketamine Therapy?

Ketamine was first used as an anesthetic, but now it is used to treat depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Ketamine therapy is given as an infusion into a vein.

Ketamine therapy works by stimulating a different part of your brain, whether you get it through an IV or as a spray. You will be able to relax and get your therapy in a quiet, comfortable room.

Typically you will have one or a series of psychotherapy sessions under the administration of ketamine.

whats ketamine treatment depression
credit: Anna Shvets

The Therapeutic Uses of Ketamine

The FDA only approves ketamine for general anesthesia, but it can be used for other things. Here are the specifics.

Helping a Person Sleep

Doctors use ketamine by itself or paired with other general anesthetics like nitrous oxide to put a person to sleep. They use it in the emergency room to calm people down for a short time.

Treating Pain

Practitioners use low doses that do not make people high to relieve severe pain caused by the following conditions:

• Trauma\Fractures
• Abdominal Pain
• Leg Or Arm Pain
• Low Backache

Follow this space to know how to deal with long-term pain here.

Treating Status Epilepticus

Status epilepticus is when a seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes or if it happens more than once in 5 minutes.

Refractory status epilepticus (RSE) is a type of status epilepticus that cannot be treated with regular seizure medicines. It’s a very dangerous disease that can damage the brain and even kill you.

Getting Rid Of Depression

Some studies show that ketamine can help people who do not respond well to other treatments for depression. There are several studies that give credible information on the effect of ketamine in treating depression, anxiety, and related psychological issues.

Treating Anxiety

Not much is known about how ketamine can help with anxiety. However, one study shows that it might help people with a social anxiety disorder (SAD). People with this condition have a strong fear of being in social situations.

In a clinical trial done in 2017, the drug was tested on 18 people, and the results showed that it might be able to treat SAD. Several other studies suggest that ketamine may help reduce anxiety in a significant way, so the authors of this study pushed for more research into this possible benefit.

More new research is being done on the effects of ketamine right now. This includes benefits for mental health problems like depression that does not respond to treatment, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts.

If you have a health problem, like high blood pressure or a heart problem, or a mental health problem, like schizophrenia, you might not be able to take ketamine. Your doctor can tell you about the latest research on ketamine therapy and how it is used in medicine.

Keep in mind that ketamine has serious side effects that can be dangerous. Do not use ketamine therapy without a doctor’s supervision. It is against the law to use ketamine without a prescription.