There is growing evidence that ketamine is proving effective in treating bipolar disorder, anxiety, OCD and PTSD
Ketamine "helped me get my life back," says James , who suffers from a variant of bipolar disorder called “fear of harm”. While the National Institutes of Health and many other research institutions have shown that IV ketamine can relieve depression, more research continues to mount showing ketamine administered by various methods, IV, sublingual and nasal, to be effective in treating many mental health disorders such as bipolar, anxiety and ocd. "I think it's actually one of the biggest advances in psychiatry in a very long time," says Dr. Martin Teicher, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital.
Massachusetts General Hospital evaluates ketamine dosing protocals
The Massachusetts General Hospital says one size does not fit all in ketamine therapy. The study confirms that ketamine is a highly effective treatment for medication resistant depression and that patients are best served by an individual treatment plan regarding dosing, other medications, and talk therapy. MGH continues to investigate the best dosing protocols of ketamine for prolonging its antidepressant effects.
Rebecca Brachman's TED talk on Ketamine
Serendipity in science: “side effects” can be beneficial! Patients with depression who were given ketamine for anesthesia or pain experienced significantly improved mood, much greater than would be expected from simple pain relief. While Ketamine has been around for 50 years as an anesthetic, in the last 10 years research has conclusively determined that it is effective in dramatically improving treatment resistant depression (TRD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) in 70-80% of patients.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s interview with a man who after 35 years of debilitating depression found relief through Ketamine treatment
Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN interviews a man who had tried numerous medications over many years to treat his depression. None worked. He had attempted suicide twice and was planning a third attempt when his doctor referred him for ketamine treatment. After his first infusion, the results were rapid and astoundingly positive. His friends, family and church members banded together to pay for additional ketamine treatments with a compassionate anesthesiologist pioneering the treatment in Wisconsin.
The "gold standard" for administration of ketamine, published by Dr. Gerard Sanacora et al.
This is a "consensus" statement, in other words, it is widely approved by the psychiatric community and published in JAMA Psychiatry. We adhere to this protocol, as do all serious medical providers of ketamine therapy for mood disorders.
All ketamine therapy providers are not created equal
Some providers follow best practices as issued from the American Psychiatry Association and well researched protocols. Others leave science behind in favor of hyped benefits and claims that are unsupported by any published research. Ketamine is a serious drug with the ability to help many people and should be administered cautiously with both psychiatric and anesthetic expert collaboration.
Oral antidepressants do work, but for whom, for how long, and how well?
The latest comprehensive review of oral antidepressants prescribed in the U.S., which has the largest percent population on antidepressants in the world, indicates that oral antidepressants have only a modest effect on improving major depression, specifically in the short term. The verdict is still out on on how well they work for mild to moderate depression or for patients who have been on the drugs for months or years.
Dissociative effects of ketamine predict antidepressant response.
Studies have shown that as opposed to being a negative side effect, the dissociative effects of ketamine are sought after when treating mood disorders. Dissociative side effects predicted a more robust and sustained antidepressant efficacy.