The Science of Ketamine
Ketamine
Ketamine is a general anesthetic widely used in operating rooms since the 1970s. In the late 1990s, researchers at Yale first showed that a low-dose intravenous infusion of ketamine had rapid and profound antidepressant effects. Over the next 20 years, more and more research has been done to demonstrate how effective ketamine infusion therapy is in helping patients find relief from depression as well as other mental health conditions.
How Ketamine Works
Ketamine works by blocking the activity of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a receptor in the brain that is involved in the regulation of mood, cognition, and pain perception. IV Ketamine therapy is thought to have rapid-acting antidepressant effects, with many patients reporting improvements in their symptoms within hours to days after treatment. Many scientists studying Ketamine are focusing on the neurotransmitter glutamate, which plays an important role in neural activation. Increasing glutamate strengthens and restores the vital neural connections and pathways in the regions of the brain most impaired by depression. As a result, there are positive changes in brain circuit function and improved mood regulation. It can help patients feel healthy, function normally, and stop feeling negative about themselves, sometimes for the first time in decades.
IV Ketamine is the Gold Standard
Several alternative forms of ketamine administration, such as oral lozenges, nasal sprays and intramuscular injections, have been offered by some new providers. While some of these may seem attractive at first, none of these methods have a track record of success like IV administration, and only intravenous (IV) ketamine has been extensively studied over the past 30 years. The data, published in hundreds of research papers from the National Institute of Mental Health and many other prestigious medical centers and universities have confirmed IV ketamine’s safety and efficacy in treating a multitude of mood disorders like treatment resistant depression, PTSD, major anxiety and others. The safety and efficacy of other forms of ketamine delivery, whether oral, nasal and intramuscular (IM), remain unproven.