Patients who are suffering from depression may sometimes have suicidal thoughts, which can subject them to a deeper depression and contribute to higher anxiety levels. Conventional anti-depressant medications may not work quickly or effectively to relieve the patient of suicidal thinking.
Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles provides safe, proven and effective ketamine infusion treatments to rapidly reduce suicidal thinking in depressed patients. Dr. Steven Mandel adopts a customized treatment approach, which is a key reason for his 83 percent success rate in treating depression. Dr. Mandel provides ketamine IV therapy for suicidal thinking to patients in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, California, and surrounding locations.
Dr. Mandel discusses Ketamine Infusion Therapy & suicide prevention
Research Shows Ketamine Efficacy
A detailed research study conducted to assess the efficacy of ketamine infusions found that repeat IV treatments of ketamine reduced, and in some cases, eliminated – suicidal thoughts in patients suffering from treatment resistant depression. The group of patients treated intravenously with low doses of ketamine drug showed quick reduction in suicidal thoughts.
In their report published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators revealed the results of their study in depressed patients who had been suffering from suicidal thinking for three months or longer.
According to Dawn Ionescu, MD, of the Depression Clinical and Research Program in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, lead and corresponding author of the paper, the finding that low doses of ketamine, when added on to current anti-depressant medications, quickly decreased suicidal thinking in depressed patients is critically important because not many safe, effective, and easily accessible treatments are available for these patients.
Most previous studies excluded patients with current suicidal thinking. Therefore, this study has shown additional benefits of ketamine infusion treatments for depressed patients. The challenge with suicidal thoughts is that it increases the risk that a patient may attempt suicide. The currently available anti-depressants to treat patients with suicidal thinking can have severe side effects, including memory loss.
How the Study was Conducted
The research study involved 14 patients with moderate to severe treatment resistant depression who had suicidal thoughts for at least three months, and were receiving stable anti-depressant treatment. The patients were placed on a course of two weekly ketamine infusions over a three-week period.
The initial dose was 0.5 mg/kg over a 45 minute period, which was increased to 0.75 mg/kg after the first three doses. In the follow-up phase lasting three months after the ketamine infusions, the participants were assessed every alternate week. The assessments included validated measures of suicidal thinking.
The patients were asked to rank whether they had specific suicide-related thoughts, and how intense and how frequent were those thoughts. Patients’ responses showed that most of them experienced a reduction in suicidal thinking, and seven out of 12 (who completed all treatment visits) achieved total remission of suicidal thoughts at the end of the treatment period.
No serious adverse events were reported at either dose during the treatment. Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles receives patients from Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, California, and other cities across SoCal for ketamine IV therapy.
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
