Understanding The Details of Ketamine and Its Effect on Depression

Posted by Psychedelics Swiss on March 31st, 2021

Steven Levine is an MD who has treated more than 3000 patients using ketamine since it opened in the year 2011. As many as10-15000 patients have been treated using ketamine. According to Dr. Levine, ketamine is a very good medicine that one can use to treat depression. But the question that might arise here is why will someone opt for this ketamine drug when there are other drugs that are approved by the FDA available?

Unfortunately, we have been facing a crisis situation today and the traditional medicines that were used for treating depression earlier are not proving to be very effective. The most commonly prescribed anti-depressants are also not acting fast. It is taking weeks or months before the patient is able to get any kind of relief. Moreover, taking these also have certain side effects and these include drowsiness, nausea, constipation etc. One of the most common anti-depressant side effects is weight gain. But none of these are the side effects of the ketamine. According to Dr. Levine, ketamine acts very fast and this is the most important feature of this medicine. Ketamine for depression is getting popular these days.

This is what the ketamine treatment consists of?

Ketamine is as of now not used as a first line treatment. This is only given at a time when other depressants are not working. To administer this a IV infusion in the arm of the patient. The effects of this last for any time between days and months. Moreover, this is administered in the tapering sequence and at this time the patients receive a total of three infusions. In the first week, the patients receive three infusions, two infusions in the second week and after that once weekly for the next coming weeks. You can also opt for the mdma treatment.

Ketamine at times is also used at the time of bipolar disorder. But this is not recommended for the patients who have active psychosis, unstable cardiovascular disease and mania. This is also not meant for the children.

Providing help to the veterans

Ketamine not only treats depression but it also treats, but it also treats the post traumatic depression. This is something that a lot of veterans experience. PTSD is a mental issue that happens due to some kind of a trauma that includes combats that can be properly treated with ketamine. There are also some researchers who consider ketamine to be the most important discovery in the recent past.

Is ketamine safe for everyone?

There are some mental experts who have expressed concern regarding the use of ketamine. It is true that it is an excellent treatment that reduces the symptoms of depression, but not much is known about the negative consequences specially if this medicine is used for a very long time. The biggest side effect is that the drug wears off after 7 to 10 days. Therefore the patients have to get infusions regularly. Ketamine also helps in reducing tobacco addiction.