WHAT IS KETAMINE?

According to the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, “Ketamine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the induction and maintenance of anesthesia, although it is also being used for the management of psychiatric disorders and chronic pain management. Ketamine has been incorporated into the treatment of psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as post-operative and chronic pain management.”

For several years, major research has been conducted on the efficacy of ketamine as a treatment for mental health disorders, including OCD, anxiety, and depression, among many others. 

THE BRAIN AND OCD

What causes OCD? According to Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, author of Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain, the “cause, at a neurological level, is hyperconnectivity between two brain regions, the orbitofrontal cortex and the caudate nucleus, creating a tidal wave of unfounded mortal fear and triggering habitual response as the only way to attain calm. But the worst part is that, despite recognition that all these thoughts and behaviors are irrational, the OCD sufferer feels driven to obey them, nonetheless.”

The orbitofrontal cortex is the area of the brain where the “reward value” of taste is represented; where the identity and reward value of odors are collected; and it’s where visual stimulus is received. Each of these are examples of “stimulus-reinforcement association learning.”

And what about the caudate nucleus? Each of the brain’s hemispheres has one. The caudate nucleus plays a crucial part in how our brain learns, particularly the processing and storing of memories. It acts like a feedback processor, meaning it utilizes information from former experiences to affect future decisions and actions. This is crucial for the development and usage of language. In particular, communication skills are believed to be operated mainly by the thalamus and the left caudate.

A doctor or mental health professional can diagnose OCD, but no one knows the disorder’s exact cause. Its origins are nebulous, but could be caused by: Genetics, physical disparities in certain parts of the human brain, another mental health disorder, an experience with trauma, or instances of childhood sexual or physical abuse.

Once diagnosed, your doctor may recommend different kinds of treatment, including ketamine, with the final option chosen based on your symptoms. 

KETAMINE FOR OCD

In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first clinical trial of ketamine as treatment for OCD. Over the last decade, dozens of studies of the drug’s power to treat a range of anxiety and mood disorders have described astonishing results — including the abrupt improvement of treatment-resistant bipolar disorder, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. And these results persisted sometimes for weeks, following the hallucinogenic effects of the drug wearing off. In some cases, trial participants reported the drug was so successful that life moved along without any episode of obsessions and compulsions.

Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, Ph.D., a researcher at Columbia University who ran the trial, says the drug’s potential could result in “a whole new line of medicines for fast-acting treatment of mental health disorders.”

She has high hopes for the drug’s efficacy but understands that further research is needed to fully understand its effect on the brain.

TREATMENT FOR OCD

As with other mental health conditions, OCD can only be treated following a diagnosis, mostly likely from a mental health professional after consulting with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). To be diagnosed, the patient must have symptoms of the O (obsessive) and C (Compulsive) at the time of the consultation. 

There’s no cure for OCD, but doctors have found that medications, including ketamine nasal sprays and infusion therapy, work to reduce its symptoms. Other treatments you may be familiar with include psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, or even neuromodulation where the brain is stimulated with magnetic fields.

FINAL THOUGHTS

OCD is a serious mental health condition that can’t be dismissed or minimized with a quick joke. If you suffer from its symptoms and don’t know where to turn, contact your primary care physician for more information. Therapy, medication like ketamine, or a combination of both, may help manage symptoms.

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WHAT IS KETAMINE?

Early on, ketamine was used as a surgical anesthetic. However, more recently, the drug has come to the fore as helpful for treating mental health disorders through nasal sprays and infusion therapy. It’s hailed by some a wonder drug for treating anxiety, depression, and PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), but it has a lively history thanks to its use by “counter-culture” supporters in the 1960s and in Vietnam as a battlefield anesthetic. Ketamine also has been used as a recreational drug. Today, we know the drug intermingles with certain receptors in the human brain, helping to control symptoms of anxiety, for instance.

THE BRAIN AND ANXIETY

If you experience symptoms of anxiety, your brain may only perceive threats that flicker occasionally into view. But what happens in the brain to swell these imagined threats? 

There appears to be a disparity between the thinking and emotional inhibitory brain areas. Normally, the prefrontal cortex slows the emotional amygdala. The amygdala is a structure that continually watches for threats to swiftly react. Humans need it to be fully operating during a hazardous situation. However, if there’s no threat, a vigorous prefrontal cortex prevents the lower parts and applies the brakes to slow the speed of the amygdala.

When your brain’s anxious, the amygdala is oversensitive and the links with the prefrontal cortex become feebler. This means the amygdala fires off too many false alarms like recognizing a non-threatening situation, comment, or evaluation as hostile. Concurrently, the prefrontal cortex is unproductive at stopping the amygdala’s looseness of thoughts. This process results in great pain as demonstrated by initiating brain pain areas like the anterior cingulate cortex.

Anxiety also leads to harmful effects on memory. It causes immense stress to the person and the hippocampus shrinks during the process. This area of the brain is vital for processing contextual and long-term memories. Sadly, our good memories are stifled, and bad memories intensified. Environment and genetics also play a role in the development of anxiety, with the condition passed on from birth parent to child. You’re also at risk if you have other blood relatives with anxiety.

We know much about the inner workings of anxiety and its psychobiological underpinning. Research has led to discovering effective treatments for different anxiety disorders including, more recently, drugs such as ketamine.

KETAMINE FOR ANXIETY

Because of its powerful effects, the use of ketamine and ketamine derived drugs like Esketamine are only administered in a controlled environment as prescribed by a medical doctor or authorized mental health provider. The doses don’t cause anesthesia, but instead, impact the brain’s neurotransmitters in a way that symptoms of anxiety and depression are minimized over time. 

Ketamine is likely only prescribed as an option if other treatment doesn’t provide the desired result, and after a thorough physical and mental health examination. If you and your healthcare provider agree on ketamine infusion therapy, for instance, treatment normally lasts about three weeks and includes up to six ketamine infusions in sessions which last about 40 minutes for each one.

The drug has shown promise treating symptoms of anxiety and other mental health disorders. It’s the first such medicine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in more than 30 years.

TREATMENT FOR ANXIETY

If you suffer from symptoms of anxiety – nervousness, restlessness, an unexplainable sense of doom – you’re not alone. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America estimates that about 40 million U.S. adults suffer from anxiety, making it the most common mental illness in the country for adults 18 and older.

The magnitude of the disorder, especially with COVID-19, has shined a light on the need for effective treatment. Talk with your doctor or a mental health professional to customize a program for your needs, which may include psychotherapy, self-help, hospitalization, or treatment in the form of ketamine nasal spray or infusion therapy.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Anxiety can strike a person at any time, caused by illness, injury, another medical condition, genetics, or environmental factors. No matter the cause, the symptoms and disorder can be treated, but it’s important to seek help quickly before it’s too late. Ask a doctor about medicine and other treatment options.

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WHAT IS KETAMINE?

Originally developed as a general anesthetic in 1962, ketamine was later approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for human use. The drug gained widespread acceptance when it was then used to treat American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. Today, the drug is still used as an anesthetic for patients undergoing minor surgical procedures and is also used to sedate agitated or irate persons. Since the 1980s, the drug has been the subject of much study and debate as to its efficacy in treating mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD.

THE BRAIN AND PTSD

According to some studies, 60 percent of males and 50 percent of females experience symptoms associated with PTSD at least once in their lives. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines PTSD as “a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault.”

Physical or psychological distress and how your brain responds to it paints a vivid picture of what’s going on in the human brain when it’s assaulted by PTSD symptoms. Israel Liberzon, MD, a professor and head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, says the brain’s structure and how it forgets or retrieves memories depends on how important they are to survival, when they happened, “and what happens immediately before or after the event.”

The human brain is the most complex organism known to man and its structure and function has been studied for hundreds of years. Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci risked punishment when he performed human dissections more than 500 years ago, but his work produced dozens of detailed drawings of the brain that still inform researchers today.

PTSD seems to affect three areas of the brain: the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is the brain’s threat detection region and gains volume in the presence of PTSD; the hippocampus, where memories are stored, loses volume; and the prefrontal cortex, which controls judgment and decision making, helps calm the amygdala but also can lose volume as PTSD symptoms worsen.

Research has shown that certain medications can lessen and help manage symptoms associated with PTSD, including ketamine.

KETAMINE FOR PTSD

Dr. Steven Levine’s treated many patients suffering from PTSD and depression and says certain drugs are administered to alleviate the symptoms based on the assumption of low serotonin levels in the brain. Ketamine is used to treat PTSD, with small doses administered via infusion that help repair damaged brain connections. Some patients have reported a positive effect following one infusion session.

“Extensive research conducted on Ketamine at multiple universities in the United States and abroad reveals a 75 percent success rate for the treatment. A recent study at Columbia University found that Ketamine infusions given in a vaccine-like fashion to those embarking upon an environment likely to cause significant stressors — such as soldiers entering a battle or aid workers going to a disaster area — prevented or reduced PTSD symptoms.”

Dr. Levine cautions that ketamine isn’t a “magic bullet” but a tool to eventually build confidence that symptoms can be self-managed.

TREATMENT FOR PTSD

The most common form of treatment for patients suffering from PTSD is psychotherapy, but antidepressants and other medicines help manage the symptoms, also. Treatment should only occur after proper diagnosis. According to Yale School of Medicine, ketamine “was found to have rapid and robust antidepressant effects when given at low doses. There is a great deal of interest in ketamine and some similar drugs as a potential treatment for depression and PTSD because they work in different ways in the brain than the traditional antidepressants, and even seem to work for many who haven’t had success with many other treatments.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

PTSD affects millions of people, and its symptoms can be managed before they become debilitating or deadly. If you suffer from its symptoms, seek help from a doctor or licensed mental health professional, and talk about the best treatment options, including the use of ketamine nasal spray or infusion therapy.

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WHAT IS KETAMINE?

Ketamine has earned some infamy as a misused club drug in the past, but that doesn’t minimize its potential or results in treating serious depression in controlled settings.

The drug, originally used as a powerful pre-surgical anesthetic, and its potential lies in how it affects the human brain.

“Ketamine works like a flash mob, temporarily taking over a certain chemical ‘receptor.’ In some cases and with expert medical care, that can be a good thing. But cross that line, and it’s big trouble.”

Its efficacy for treating a mental health condition like depression is worth noting.

THE BRAIN AND DEPRESSION

The brain and depression are inextricably linked, and some evidence shows that inflammation and other conditions can aggravate or even lead to depression symptoms. The inflammatory response in our brain is a major element of the immune system. If our bodies are overrun by viruses, toxins, bacteria, or parasites, our immune system “hires” proteins, cells, and tissues, including the human brain, to assault these intruders.

The key tactic is to identify the wounded body parts, so we can give them attention as needed. Physical signs of inflammation may include body parts that turn red, hot, swollen. If the injury isn’t contained, the system can become inflamed, resulting in “sickness behaviors” which likely originate in the brain. These include cognitive, physical, and behavioral changes.

The changes that happen when we are ill are adaptive, leading to the need for more sleep to mend and stay isolated so the infections don’t spread. Some studies indicated the rise in the frequency of depression in patients cared for with a kind of interferon was not only due to sickness. Healthy patients were injected with immune system intruders, and researchers discovered greater rates of depression symptoms in the ones exposed to invaders when contrasted to the control group. The patients who were provoked to get an inflammatory reaction complained of symptoms such as anhedonia, sleep disturbances, negative mood, social withdrawal, and cognitive deficiencies.

But there are environmental factors leading to inflammation and increasing the risk for depression: stress, a troubled childhood, or low socioeconomic status. Mental health professions and researchers have studied different treatment options, and psychedelic drugs such as ketamine may have positive effects for those suffering from depression. 

KETAMINE FOR DEPRESSION

In March of 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a ketamine-derived drug called Esketamine, developed by Johnson & Johnson and produced as a nasal spray, to treat symptoms of depression. It’s the first new drug approved for depression since Prozac and other antidepressants in the 1980s – drugs that target serotonin, the brain’s “feel-good” chemical, and may take months before it’s effective. The ketamine derivative from Johnson & Johnson is different as it goes after a chemical called glutamate which some believe restores brain connections and helps relieve depression. 

According to Harvard Medical School: “If a person responds to ketamine, it can rapidly reduce suicidality (life-threatening thoughts and acts) and relieve other serious symptoms of depression. Ketamine also can be effective for treating depression combined with anxiety.”

Some patients suffering from depression, including people experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder, are also treated with ketamine infusion therapy.

TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION

If you suffer from symptoms of depression, it’s critical to schedule an appointment with a medical doctor, and then with a mental health professional. A medical doctor will perform a physical examination to rule out injuries or conditions which may be causing depression. A psychologist or other mental health professional will discuss your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and specific symptoms before arriving at a diagnosis.

Treatment for depression could include sessions and different kinds of therapy, group therapy, medication, or hospitalization. Many patients have seen improvements in mental health after being treated with ketamine, so ask a doctor for more information.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Depression is a serious but treatable mental health condition whose symptoms shouldn’t be ignored. If you need care, ask your doctor about treatment options which offer the best chance of success for your situation, including the use of ketamine-derived nasal spray or infusion therapy. Recovery means getting help when needed.

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