Ketamine has been recognized and used as an anesthetic for decades. But in recent years, wider therapeutic uses of ketamine have emerged to address a variety of ailments. Ketamine Therapy has been particularly effective in treating depression, and a growing body of researchers and medical professionals is now strongly in favor of using it for suitable candidates in controlled doses.
Dr. Steven Mandel of the Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles provides ketamine infusion treatments to patients in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, California, and surrounding communities and neighborhoods across the landscape.
Support for Ketamine Therapy
Ketamine Infusion Therapy has recently received support from the American Psychiatric Association, which released a consensus statement acknowledging that the drug might also be a breakthrough treatment for severe depression. This is a major boost for all those doctors and researchers who have been committed to promoting ketamine for its significant therapeutic uses, and particularly for its unique antidepressant effects.
The statement authors of the American Psychiatric Association have written that seven studies – all placebo-controlled, double-blind, and randomized – provide evidence that Ketamine Therapy is a “rapid and robust, albeit transient" response to severe clinical depression. Results with this treatment are noticeable within hours, unlike conventional antidepressant treatments that typically take weeks to work.
The transient nature of ketamine suggests that the therapy will work best with twice-weekly dosing. It is important to ensure that the therapy is administered at a dedicated ketamine clinic under the direct supervision of a qualified and experienced ketamine treatment expert. Small dose infusions of ketamine enable the treatment provider to deliver the therapy as an in-office procedure.
Compelling Benefits
Yale psychiatrist Gerard Sanacora, who has been successfully providing Ketamine Infusion Therapy to patients, explains why the drug’s off-label status has not discouraged him from recommending this treatment for patients of depression. Sanacora says that some doctors do ask him, “How can you be offering this to patients based on the limited amount of information that is out there, and not knowing the potential long-term risk?"
Sanacora has a simple answer for them: “If you have patients that are likely to seriously injure themselves or kill themselves within a short period of time, and they have tried the standard treatments, how do you not offer this treatment?” So, the vital question in case of ketamine is not “Why,” but “Why not?”
Pragmatic Approach for Patients
The available research and feedback of patients and doctors with ketamine suggests that the long term risks of Ketamine Infusion Therapy, if there are any, will be preferable to the short-term risk of a successful suicide attempt for a patient of severe depression. The paper released by the American Psychiatric Association closes on a conjecture that “economic factors make it unlikely that large-scale, pivotal phase 3 clinical trials of ketamine will ever be completed.”
This means that patients with treatment resistant forms of depression who are willing to try Ketamine Therapy should make an appointment at one of the few qualified clinics offering this treatment. Remarkable and sagacious Dr. Mandel receives patients from Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, California, and nearby area for ketamine infusion treatments.
For more information about treatments for depression, bipolar, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), fibromyalgia, pain syndromes and other conditions contact us at the Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles in Southern California (Orange County) by clicking here or calling 310-270-0625
Treating patients from LA, Beverly Hills, Orange County, San Diego, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Sacramento,CA, Las Vegas, NV and many other cities from west to east coast.
