Depression is a very complex condition. Many people who experience it have trouble managing daily responsibilities and maintaining the necessary energy levels to do the things they love. Unfortunately, treatment-resistant depression is quite common. People who experience this condition may not find relief from their symptoms through conventional treatment. At Metropolitan Institute of Pain’s Pain Management Clinic in Chicago, our team strives to find effective methods for treating various types of pain, which is often associated with depression.
A new breakthrough treatment for depression that shows promise is intravenous ketamine treatment. Last March, the FDA approved ketamine as a treatment for depression – a change that could help thousands of sufferers.
Typically used to start and treat anesthesia, ketamine is a mild sedative that has proven to effectively treat the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder and depression. While more testing is necessary to fully understand the validity of ketamine as a depression treatment, anyone suffering from depression should know a few key facts about ketamine, how it is used, and how it may help depression symptoms:
- Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have asserted that the treatment for depression can have persistent effects for several weeks following each treatment session.
- Harvard University medical researchers believe ketamine may help depression symptoms due to how it acts on the NMDA receptors in the brain and its ability to increase glutamate production. This creates a chain reaction called synaptogenesis, which increases cognition and improves the symptoms of depression.
- Ketamine has some reported side effects, but it does not cause weight gain, which is one of the most commonly reported side effects of conventional antidepressant medications.
- Depression has strong links to protein buildup in the brain. One of the ways it fights depression is by repairing the damage done to the brain caused by long-term exposure to stress hormones.
Research on ketamine as a viable treatment for depression continues, but many people who have been unsuccessful in overcoming their depression symptoms with conventional treatments have tried ketamine infusions and reported positive results. Contact the Metropolitan Institute of Pain’s Pain Management Clinic in Chicago for more information about ketamine as a depression treatment.
