Depression and Treatment Options (Including Ketamine Therapy)
Depression is a common but serious mood disorder that affected an estimated 14.8 million U.S. adults aged 18 or older in the year 2020. It’s the most common type of mood disorder and can affect people of any age. Symptoms of depression include a persistent sad or empty mood, feelings of hopelessness, irritability, and guilt, a loss of interest in activities, difficulty sleeping, and more.
Fortunately, depression, even severe cases, can be treated.
Depression is usually treated with medications, psychotherapy, or a combination of the two. However, traditional antidepressant medications and psychotherapy don’t work for everyone. Some may experience treatment resistant depression where their symptoms do not improve even after multiple medication and psychotherapy trials. If these treatments do not reduce symptoms, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) can be used to help those experiencing treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine is becoming the treatment of choice for people who can’t find relief from traditional medication and psychotherapy because it both offer immediate relief of depression and can facilitate and enhance psychotherapy.
How Ketamine Works
The benefits of ketamine may stem from its inhibition of NMDA receptors, which have been linked to depression and other mood disorders. Blocking NMDA receptors has been shown to have rapid and significant antidepressant effects.
Essentially, ketamine appears to increase the amount of a neurotransmitter called glutamate in the synaptic spaces between neurons. Downstream effects of glutamate include activation of the AMPA receptor.
With initial blockade of NMDA receptors and the activation of AMPA receptors, there is a release of molecules that help neurons communicate with each other along new pathways, i.e, neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is thought to have beneficial and lasting effects on mood, thought patterns, and cognition.
Ketamine Offers Immediate Relief…
and May Have Longer Lasting effects than conventional antidepressants.
Ketamine has a faster onset of action compared with traditional antidepressants. While traditional antidepressants can take several weeks to produce noticeable improvements in mood, ketamine has been shown to produce rapid and significant improvements in mood within hours or days of administration.
On the other hand, antidepressants can take much longer. For instance, one study found that only 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks. Without the need for taking an antidepressant pill daily, and without risking the potential for antidepressant withdrawal within 5 days typically when an antidepressant pill is stopped, ketamine also may have long lasting effects. Research suggests that the antidepressant effects of ketamine may persist for several weeks or even months after administration.
Ketamine Therapy with Acheron Psychiatry
As you can see, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, also called KAP is an effective, fast-acting treatment that combines the use of legally-prescribed ketamine with psychotherapy to help ease your symptoms of depression. With Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy comes immediate relief and potentially long lasting effects, without the need for a daily pill, by the process of blocking NMDA receptors, as well as enhancing psychotherapy.
Acheron Psychiatry offers Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy, leveraging the clinical advantage of the only legally-prescribed psychedelic medicine, in New York City.
If you live in the NYC area and are struggling with treatment-resistant or suicidal depression, click here to schedule a free consultation call.
