Ketamine Therapy
Ketamine Therapy
Over the past 20 years, ketamine has demonstrated powerful antidepressant effects and benefits for other mental health chronic pain conditions. Initially an effective sedative on the battlefield with a wide safety margin, ketamine has become an invaluable resource for various physical and mental issues, known for its transformative power and speedy results.
Ketamine interacts with multiple aspects of our psychology and physiology. Traditional medications like antidepressants can take months to start working. Ketamine therapy, on the other hand, offers patients relief quickly, with some individuals reporting relief within a few hours of their first infusion session.
Conditions We Treat
How Ketamine Works
Recent evidence points to ketamine’s inhibitory effects on the NMDA receptor in the lateral habenula. The lateral habenula is a brain region primarily responsible for encoding negative rewards or anti-reward cause-and-effect relationships. Those with depression and anxiety show an overactivity of burst firing in the lateral habenula. As a non-competitive NMDA antagonist, ketamine prevents glutamate from activating the NMDA receptor.
The inhibition of the NMDA receptor may cause a build-up of free glutamate, which then activates the AMPA receptors. When surplus glutamate activates the AMPA receptor, it releases a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) chemical. BDNF, in interaction with mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), promotes new neural growth. This new growth may reroute the brain from hyperactive areas associated with negative reward signals, thereby providing long-term relief from mental health conditions and chronic pain conditions.
