Ketamine & Depression
Becca Belofsky Shuer wears a tattoo of a semicolon on the inside of her wrist. It is a symbol of hope and solidarity for people who are high risk candidates for suicide. Becca chose this symbol to give her the courage to fight her darkest thoughts.
She had wanted to die, but about four months ago, she started a series of Ketamine Infusions that helped her overcome these dark thoughts. Becca informed Healthline.com that she felt the drug was cleansing her brain starting with her second Ketamine Infusion in January 2016.
Becca is a fun-loving and gregarious woman who loves comedy and reading books. She now runs counseling sessions on hoarding and clutter with her husband, Lee. She has been able to go without the treatment for three months, and has been taking ketamine lozenges daily for the past four months.
Becca says that at one point her life became really difficult and it entered a dark stage, but she did not get a period tattooed. She chose a semicolon and decided to carry on with her life. Ketamine Infusion Therapy played a vital role in the restoration of her well-being.
The prolific and caring Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles, led by the judicious Dr. Steven L. Mandel, provides ketamine infusion treatments to patients in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Orange County, California, and surrounding locations across the landscape; he’s also treated patients from most states within the US and a number of patients from Canada, Europe, and Australia
Ketamine Fights Depression
According to a meta-analysis published by the American Journal of Psychiatry, ketamine works rapidly to address suicidal thoughts. The report collated results from 10 prior studies of IV Ketamine Therapy. It showed that within 24 hours, more than 50 percent of the participants did not have suicidal thoughts anymore.
Ketamine is the drug of choice in war zones, and is used extensively by veterinarians as well. Similar to any drug, the impact of ketamine differs with the delivery technique and dosage. The favorable research on its anti-depressant properties is mostly based on carefully administered IV infusions.
The treatment dose is only a fraction of what recreational users take or the amount used during a surgical procedure.
While most of the popular anti-depressants focus on serotonin pathways in the brain, Ketamine Therapy works more holistically. It is akin to rebooting your computer. It manages to block a molecule on the glutamate pathway which is connected to the memory. This blockage is temporary but it facilitates the growth of new brain connections.
Link between Ketamine and Glutamate Pathway
James Murrough is a psychiatrist at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and the leading author of a pro-Ketamine report in 2013. He was a part of the recently published meta-analysis, and he highlights that research conducted on ketamine found the link between depression and this pathway.
Psychiatrist David Feifel who uses ketamine on patients in California, spoke to the Lancet journal that adverse reactions to the drug are very rare, dosage related, and transient due to the rapid metabolism of ketamine.
The stellar and personable Dr. Steven Mandel receives patients from around the world. He is located in Los Angeles, primarily serving Brentwood, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Orange County, California, and other communities and neighborhoods in this region of Southern California and the southwest in general for ketamine infusion treatments.
For more information about Ketamine Infusion Therapy 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
